Brooklyn-based alternative rock band Lord Sonny the Unifier releases You Were Born to Save Your Life this month. Taking us on a time traveler’s journey through an almost post-apocalyptic like world that somewhat mirrors our own post-Covid world. It’s been a journey for lead singer Greg Jiritano to say the least. Playing music since the age of 8 in New York City, the musician takes us through the musical journey, one that he claims is a “never ending process, hopefully a progress.”
Congrats on the upcoming release of your new album. That must be so exciting. Tell us about the album and how it came to be.
The only inspiration I’ve ever needed was to hear a great song, and there are many. I hear a great song and I am so moved by it that I become compelled to write, because I love that song so much, I Want to be a PART of that song and that community of great writers. I don’t know what else to do with this feeling. Music moves my Spirit the most in all my life and so that is my pursuit. My process to get to a completed album is the same from the music’s standpoint: work as much as you can, write as much as you can and keep the best songs. For my first release as Lord Sonny The Unifier, I wrote 120 songs and 11 made it on the album. The lyrics are what gives that group of songs its coherence and that’s what usually defines the times of that album. The musical journey is a never ending process, hopefully a progress. There is an aspect of becoming wise to the muses demands and massaging her in the right way to aid the process, to plead, silent or aloud to her for mercy. We do “overcome” the conquest temporarily I suppose by finally writing a good one, but then we wake up the next day and hear, “I Gotta Right” again and go damn, ain’t there just yet am I? Writing isn’t difficult, it’s mysterious and incomprehensible. As Bob Dylan once said, “any idiot can write a song, it’s the songs that have meaning and lasting effect that are written by the few.”
There’s a post-COVID, almost apocalyptic theme to the album. Was this how you felt in relation to the state of the current world?
Of course this can be a very long discussion on the current and no doubt recurring state of humanity. I’ll try not to ramble but fear that is wishful thinking, ha!
We’re all the subjects of a purposeful, active, malevolent, mass hypnosis, a propaganda so invasive, omnipotent and so fluid most of us are ignorant of its presence. Some people are waking up to it and are retaliating. Unfortunately, not many and not enough for any lasting change, at the moment. Using petty fears this is tragically easy to accomplish. When clinical, scientific studies have shown that 1 in 100-150 men are Psychopathic or score very high on the Psychopathic test, it is easy to see who is doing the manipulating and how this malevolence is so near to us daily. These same studies show that Psychopaths make up at least 20% of the heads of Corporations, Law firms, the Police force, Political seats etc, any place where people seek positions to dominate others or in general positions of power.
Their rise to power is easier to accomplish without empathy and concern for our brothers and sisters and so they do so with a wink and a nod along with their fellow Psychopaths. Yes they recognize each other. This is not the viewpoint of a paranoid victim or a dystopian sci-fi nightmares author, this is scientific research that is now becoming more acknowledged by the greater population, thankfully, finally. Perhaps through shining the light on them we can disinfect those institutions somewhat. Let’s pray for that. The song, “I Think We’ve Been Had,” comes closest to explicitly saying this. I was kind enough to say I THINK but the truth is we have definitely been had.
What is the overarching message of You Were Born to Save Your Life?
We are all born with a spark of life and we can do many things with that spark. We can stay mediocre and not do much, we can even sink lower of course, or we can rise up and become someone who seems to be beyond human, almost god-like, to show us what humans can do and what we can become. For example Da Vinci, Dylan, MichaelAngelo, Dante, Shakespeare etc, too many to mention, showed us this, as well as many other people throughout history. What drove them? How were they different from us? We have to save this spark we were given at birth, we have to create ourselves, it’s up to us, we were born to do this. We have to save ourselves from mediocrity and create a greater spark. seems contradictory to say it but we can ONLY do this AFTER we are born. Our only chance is with this body we have here on earth now, this time. I never planned, in fact I kind of thought it was lazy to title an album after a song, I thought I’d never do that. I’m sure some bands back in the day didn’t have a choice if the label heard a hit and didn’t want any confusion for customers to buy THIS album with the hit but, I did end up doing just that, not because that song is, will be or I thought might be the hit but because I felt it really summed up the entire album and my thoughts behind it, very succinctly said.
Lord Sonny the Unifier the band came together after a time of great misfortune for you with a fire that burned all of your equipment. What did this teach you about resilience, and how does this shape who you are today?
The first release of Lord Sonny The Unifier The LP called FINAL NOTICE! was the result of this tragic event. It did yield positive redirections that I am very thankful for now, though I lost everything. When I began writing music at age 16, I realized I needed and wanted my own recording studio. I slaved at construction for years to reach this goal, and finally did it after ten years. I made one album in there before tragedy struck and the entire building burned down and I lost everything (I never released that album) This was in the Brooklyn, the landlord wouldn’t address or replace/repair a sparking faulty outlet in the floor below mine and the building caught fire in the middle of the day on a Saturday when very few people were in the building, thankfully, but no one was there to call the fire department either until it was too late.
I got 30 grand from the loss and decided to build a smaller studio and use Logic and to use other studios for the drums and bass and keyboards and only mine for the guitars and vocals. This got me to begin writing on the keyboards and computer which allows me to write quicker by having all instrumental ideas right in front of me and for editing and arranging with a lot more ease than using tape. Writing quicker allows us to not get too attached to the songs and feel obligated to complete songs that aren’t worthy of completion in the end. I feel its very important to write a lot of rough ideas at first and then sit on them for a week or so then listen to that and see if the song is worthy to continue it to completion. We are often touched by the “magic” of the song, the song appears from thin air, Bam! weird, where did this come from , it’s magic, it’s awesome…and yet- it could be a shitty song! We won’t know this until we give it time, breathing room, an unbiased look. So you write 15 of those and hear for the better ones later and work on those, and not labor on the lesser ones.
In your own words, how would you describe the music you’re making now, and what listeners will expect to hear in the new album?
This new album’s music is a continuation, a second part of the last album America’s Newest Hitmaker in that there is a great variety of beats and not a fixed, conscious direction of an idea that I was driving at. I was keeping a very open mind to ANY musical idea that came to me. If it sounded like a psychedelic circus track that would be projected into the Freaks Tent I would pursue that. If it sounded like a Rockpile song on Acid I would pursue that. An 80’s Goth Pop tune? going for that as well. All options were on the table without my directing them elsewhere. The next album to be released in a year or so called The Escape Plan Handbook Pt 1 has more of a focus on driving, pounding infectious beats first and foremost. All the better for the motivation when you get on your motorcycle to escape.
What is next for the band? Do you plan to tour after the release?
You Were Born To Save Your Life will be out very soon by Interstellar Smoke Records. It will also be available on all digital platforms then as well. I also just got the Masters back last week on the next album called, The Escape Plan Handbook Pt 1. Hopefully, that will come out in the following year and I’m currently writing a new one, maybe have 5 keepers so far, won’t know that for a while- got to give them time to reveal whether they are good or not. Only release your best. Don’t dilute your works, don’t add to the song sewage overflowing the toilets at all the music platforms it ruins things for everyone. John Fogarty said if I write 100 songs, 10 will be good. Loretta Lynn said if I write 10 songs, 3 will be good. Be like John and Loretta, only release your best. Elton John asked Billy Joel why he didn’t write and release new music and he said he didn’t want to dilute his catalogue, honorable Billy. I suppose if he wrote more great songs he wouldn’t be doing that but it’s a mystery and incomprehensible why and where songs come from. BTW I am not a fan of any Billy Joel song, but that’s not the point.
Touring would be great of course. I am hoping the opportunity arises. It’s a daunting operation these days with the finances involved so I am looking forward to having the feasibility of it all pay off and the only way for that to happen is to write that massive hit HA!
What is the hope for the trajectory of Lord Sonny the Unifier?
A move to the Tropics…with my studio.
Official Website: www.lordsonnytheunifier.com
Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/lordsonnytheunifier/
Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/lord-sonny-the-unifier/1440287498 ;
Twitter:https://twitter.com/LUnifier
Instagram:www.instagram.com/lordsonnytheunifier
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/2NbjLlmT80x5feEh1YCxJf?si=wqmkCbKBTl-6GrSELATAhg&nd=1&dlsi=9641e3b7aea64abb
Soundcloud:https://soundcloud.com/gregory-jiritano
Youtube Channel:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC–v33-RaTeUVTgKAl_BJXA
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