“How much will it sound like the first record, the second record, or the third record, because they all seemed to me to sound quite different.”Working with producer Kyle Hoffman, Wakeling made a joyful, defiant record that touches on most of the Beat’s signature sounds. That arrangement left him at the mercy of the studio’s schedule, and since he was playing upwards of 150 shows a year with The English Beat, the album took a couple years to finish.Of course, before he could even start recording, Wakeling had to figure out what this new album should sound like.“It seemed like an easy idea in the beginning, but then you start thinking, ‘How much do you make it sound like a Beat record-or what people imagine Beat records sound like?’” Wakeling says.
Whenever the place wasn’t in use, Wakeling was welcome to record there-all he had to do was pay the engineer. But then fans started coming to the merch booth asking where they could buy the new songs he sometimes slipped into the set.In response, Wakeling launched a successful PledgeMusic campaign in 2015 and accepted a generous offer from his friends at L.A.’s famed NRG Studios. Playing his back catalog to enthusiastic audiences of original 2 Tone fans and younger listeners who discovered ska during its ‘90s resurgence.
When he first reactivated the English Beat brand in the mid-‘00s, Wakeling was content to travel the U.S. Technically, The English Beat were only 2 Tone artists for one single-a cover of Smokey Robinson’s “Tears of a Clown”-but they embodied the label’s ethos on the three excellent albums they released before splitting up in 1983.With Here We Go Love (out June 15), Wakeling looks to continue the story, even though he’s the only original member in the group. From that ugliness came 2 Tone, a record label whose roster of punky, multiracial ska bands crashed the pop charts with a fiery anti-racist message. Was facing a wave of racism and xenophobia.
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