Just days after unveiling a new signature guitar amp collaboration with Orange Amps, Marcus King has announced a new album titled Young Blood.
Scheduled for release on 26 August through Rick Rubin’s American Records/Republic Records, Young Blood sees King once more secure the services of Dan Auerbach as producer.
The first single from the album, Hard Working Man, has been released today, and it is an uptempo rocker that presents King's electric guitar with the hot scratch of fuzzand a pumping eighth-note bassline pulling it along. In a statement, King said the track was an anthem for working people.
“We tour almost 200 days of the year, and even when I’m home, I’m doing something,” he said. “Working hard is just the way I was raised. It would make my grandfather proud to know I’m a hard working man and I’ve worked for everything I have. It’s an anthem for the people. You’ve got folks who work all week and spend their hard-earned money just to come see us. They’re the backbone of America. It’s a real blessing.”
Auerbach returns to the studio with King after producing his 2019 solo album, El Dorado. The pair once more decamped to Auerbach’s Easy Eye Studios in Nashville, tracking it in 2021's summer heat.
King, 26, said the album touches upon many of the struggles he has had in recent times.
“I was going through a lot during the album with addictions, breakups, and addictions because of breakups. I was overindulging in everything, said King. “It’s not a big secret to my friends. I was in a real rough place for a while. I was trying to process the death of family members and I was on the wrong medications.”
King was joined in the studio by Chris St. Hilaire on drums and Nick Movshon on bass guitar. The songwriting duties were shared between King and Auerbach, with additional credits going to Desmond Child and Angelo Petraglia.
Auerbach tracked everything live to capture the power trio in the moment, and said described King as quote/unquote the real deal.
“Music runs so deep in Marcus’s blood he might not even realise how born to do this he is,” said Auerbach. “Marcus has Southern Soul as part of his foundation. If you’re going to play rock ‘n’ roll with Marcus, you have to understand that element. It’s just who he is. These songs are live performances. The whole damn thing is live – the solos and everything. It’s so rare in this day and age.”
Young Blood is available to preorder now. Meanwhile, the Orange Marcus King MK Ultra 30-watt guitar head is also available, and it is a historic amplifier for being the first Orange amp to be made in the USA.
It has a simple three-knob front panel with a volume control flanked by dials for Sing (treble) and Deep (deep). Under the hood there are a pair of cathode-biased 6L6GC power tubes, with two 12AX7s in the preamp.
For more details, head over to Orange Amps.
