GOT SO MANY THINGS TO TELL YA
A CONVERSATION WITH DURAND JONES
Since their eponymous debut album, Durand Jones & The Indications have made a name for themselves with their seamless blend of retro-style soul, R&B, and funk, featuring catchy and soothing melodies, stunningly magnetic instrumentation, and the powerhouse vocals of Durand Jones and Aaron Frazer. Their newest album, Flowers, is their first since 2021’s Private Space.
“In the space between Private Space and this one, we all did some individual work, some individual art,” says Jones. “Coming back to The Indications after all our little solo projects, we came back with so much knowledge of trying different things apart from each other. I think that really showed within the lyric content and the sound for Flowers. We really realized that in the current realm of soul, what we have and what we could do could really make us stand out. Aaron having the sweet falsetto, and I could bring the raw soulful sound of David Ruffin, and he could be the Eddie Kendricks. We really wanted to embrace that even more.”
The album starts with the title track, the lone instrumental song from the record. “I don’t know if this was initially the intention, but whenever I hear that intro, I immediately think of a flower blooming,” reflects Jones. “That’s really, truly the sentiment. The introduction is like witnessing a flower blooming or hearing the flower blooming, and then you get to smell it.”
“Been So Long” was the first single released for Flowers. “We wanted to write something along the lines of getting back to being with your friends and the sentiment of like coming back home after not being there for a while,” states Jones. “We wanted it to be something positive. We didn’t want it to be something negative. That was sort of the sentiment we really tried to capture with that tune. Upon writing it, we kind of realized that a lot of it reflected with ourselves and with our fans. It’s been a while since we were back together, and it’s been a while since we’ve put anything back out to our fans. It was really important for that song to be the first single and to just start with the words ‘It’s been so long since you’ve been gone / Got so many things to tell ya’. And trust me, we’ve got so many things.”
“Paradise” is a song idea that Jones brought to the rest of the band. Frazer, Blake Rhein, and Steve Okonski all contributed their own ideas to the song. “This is the beautiful part of collaboration because I was thinking I want it to have like this bass line that felt like Stevie Wonder’s ‘Too High’ but then Blake was hearing more of like Sylvia Striplin’s ‘You Can’t Turn Me Away’ with the bass line,” explains Jones. “Aaron was thinking more of something like Sade. Steve had these keyboard sensibilities of Deniece Williams’ ‘Free’. You get all these ideas together, and that’s kind of how ‘Paradise’ came to be. It’s almost like I brought something to the table, and I was like, ‘Look at this beautiful colour. Look at this red.’ Aaron is like ‘I see blue.’ Blake is like ‘I see green.’ Steve is like ‘I see purple.’ But in a way, though, it all makes sense.”
FLOWERS ALBUM REVIEW
“Really Wanna Be With You” was written about an ex that was thought to be a soulmate. Lyrically, the song is sorrowful and full of heartache. Sonically, the song is gloriously upbeat and triumphantly upbeat. The contrast between the sad lyrics and happy instrumentation was something Jones knew the song needed to have. “Even though it was a breakup or even though it felt like it was the end, we could still enjoy the beautiful time that we had together,” he shares. “I really wanted that song to capture that sentiment. So, it’s almost like you’re dancing with tears down your face. Like you’ll live to see another day, but we’re gonna cry this one out and dance our hearts out to it too.”
One of the standout tracks is the infectiously sunny and warmly relaxing “Lovers’ Holiday”. “Steve just started jamming on some chords, Aaron started playing some drums, and Blake was recording, doing some hand percussion stuff, and he might have been playing guitar too,” recalls Jones. “I was sitting there with my notebook just listening to them jam around. It felt very island breezy to me, something vacationey. I was thinking earlier that day, before we were in the writing session, I was like, ‘I want to take myself on a vacation, but I don’t want to take myself on a vacation alone.’ I was listening to this tune by Oleta Adams while I was in the shower called ‘Lover’s Holiday’. Just getting to that writing session, I was like, ‘What could a lover’s holiday be like in today’s time?’ I was just thinking, ‘Let’s catch a flight’ and then BAM! It just stewed from there. Once the guys stopped playing, I was like, ‘I have this idea for this tune.’ I sang it a little bit, and they were into it, so we just dived down the rabbit hole and wrapped it up in a bow and called it ‘Lovers’ Holiday’”.
Durand Jones & The Indications used limited horns on their previous album, Private Space. Flowers sees them incorporating horns into the mix more, such as in “Flower Moon”, in which the instrument plays a key role in establishing a retro soul sound. “We really wanted to utilize horns a little more in Flowers because not only are they a quintessential part of the soul sound, but they also add such a beautiful colour, a flair, and a brightness,” says Jones. “They can be another percussive instrument as well to your mix and can add to it too. We really wanted to bring that about this time.”
“Without You” nicely closes the record. “Even though it’s a love song to a lover lost it’s a really sweet sentiment to sing this to our fans, just to let them know that at the end of the day and at the end of this record, our careers from the humble beginnings of making songs in the basements of Indiana to travelling the world now with these guys, we couldn’t do it without our fans,” comments Jones. “We couldn’t do it without all of you. So, it’s just like, ‘We’ve been gone for a long time but just wanted to let you know we’re not going anywhere and just wanted to let you to know we can’t do it without you.’”
Flowers dropped on June 27th. “This record means growth to me and in a lot of ways it means blossoming, and with that there’s more to come and there’s more to discover,” reflects Jones. “It takes a flower a very difficult path to blossom, and for this band to do what it’s done, it has not been an easy path. It’s been a difficult one. It wasn’t something that was just built overnight. It was something that took a lot of blood, sweat, and tears. It really took a lot of work. Just coming back with the guys and making a record that we felt really good about, it felt like we were in a place of maturity and growth. We really wanted to show that within the record. But also, the sentiment of giving flowers. We wanted to give flowers to each other. We wanted to give flowers to our fans, lovers of soul music, and aficionados of this genre for giving us a platform to even be doing this. Not only is the record symbolic of ourselves, but we’re also giving the flowers, the record, to our people.”
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Photo Credit: Kalie Johnston
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: DURAND JONES & THE INDICATIONS – FLOWERS
