Variety Lab returns with its magnificent new record Team Up!

Features collaborations with folk legend Donovan, David Bartholomé, Lisa Kekaula, Yael Naim, Lily Frost and cover art from famous French comic artists Dupuy & Berberian

Variety Lab
Team Up!
Release date: December 15, 2009
Peermusic / Digital Pressure
variety-lab.com
myspace.com/varietylab

How did this project come together?

“Soda Pop Confusion” (feat kidsaredead):

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This is a diverse and super funky mix of tropicalia, electro, acid jazz and bubblegum pop with a surprise at every turn. From the vocodered disco-rock of Let’s Boogie to the sun-drenched acoustica of Mireia there isn’t a moment here that doesn’t ooze laid-back Mediterranean cool.

- Clash Magazine

Spanning multiple genres and featuring collaborations from some of the most inspiring artists in the world, Variety Lab’s sophomore album Team Up! is set up to be the most wonderful musical surprise of 2009. From the original blueprints through to the execution it’s a grand slam. Collaborations with folk legend Donovan, David Bartholomé, Lisa Kekaula, Yael Naim and Lily Frost creates a broad musical spectrum while French comic artists Dupuy & Berberian bring Variety Lab’s vision to life.

Variety Lab is the alias of one Thierry Bellia. His first CD – 2003’s Providence – gained notoriety for its lead single “London In The Rain,” which was, at the time, included in every single lounge compilation. As in the past Bellia, alone, put Team Up! together, but he did not forget to emphasize his friends’ assistance in the process. Let’s just name his henchmen from the French band Orwell (Jérôme Didelot and Alexandre Longo, aka Cascadeur and winner of the 2008 Inrockuptibles CQFD prize). Making use of his friends, instruments, machines and other weird objects (for instance the Optigan, a toy devised back in the 70’s), Thierry has worked non-stop on this project.

As for the biggest collaboration, after months of swapping tapes across the channel with Bellia, folk legend Donovan himself flew across to Paris to offer his voice and his experience to the spacious and bouncy opening track, “Is This The Last Time.” “I was delighted to be asked to join Variety Lab on their project. I flew into Paris to record. I helped to re-work the song and had great fun with the band. It’s a cool track and I am pleased to present this first single with Variety Lab. It’s a funny lyric and I brought out the humor with one of my quirky accents that I use when I take on the character in a song. It’s a perfect new pop record to dance and meet a new friend or lover,” Donovan says.

On three other tracks, “We Should Be Dancing” (the video has now been viewed over 125,000 time on YouTube), “Mireia” and the very rocky “Not Enough,” it is David Bartholomé, the lead-singer with the excellent Belgian band Sharko, who grabs the mike. And then the fantastic and frantic Bellrays’ vocalist, Lisa Kekaula, with her husky and roaring voice who sings on “Let’s Boogie,” a groovy and vocodered track that oozes sheer rock and soul energy from Detroit. The youngster Vincent Mougel from Kidsaredead comes in next to blow some sugary foam on the sweet candy that is “Soda Pop Confusion,” while Thierry’s fellow Nancy-born Mona Soyoc naturally joins the project as a next-door neighbor, and adds some sensuality to the very eighties “Money,” a cover version of the track by late 70s-early 80s English band The Flying Lizards, who had themselves borrowed it from the soul crooner Barrett Strong. Next, Canadian songstress Lily Frost croons over the lush, crackly ballad “This Parade” before 2008 pop sensation Yael Naim closes the album with her version of “Love Is A Bird;” originally a Variety Lab demo that has gradually evolved, first in the expert hands of Cascadeur, then by David Bartholomé on a Sharko album. “Love Is A Bird”, a simple, and beautiful idea, that leads us strolling from one end of Team up! to the other, filled with a feeling that can be summed up as the more, the stronger, the prettier and the merrier.

Team up! is more than a mere album – Much more. It is like awaking from a soft dream.

Variety Lab
“Team Up!”

Tracklisting

01 – “Is This The Last Time?” (feat. Donovan)
02 – “Money (That’s what I Want)” (feat. Mona Soyoc)
03 – “Which way to go (Reprisa)”
04 – “We Should Be Dancing” (feat. David Bartholome)
05 – “Soda Pop Confusion” (feat. Kidsaredead)
06 – “This Parade” (feat. Lily Frost)
07 – “Hola Mireia”
08 – “Which Way To Go”
09 – “Mireia” (feat. David Bartholome)
10 – “Let’s Boogie” (feat. Lisa Kekaula)
11 – “Not Enough” (feat. David Bartholome)
12 – “Love Is A Bird” (feat. Yael Naim)

Walking into the Echo Curio, you can immediately tell you’re in for an intimate night at the venue. Rumored to be the place where people “first wore skinny jeans, and all the hipsters came to hang out in LA, way before everyone started wearing skinny jeans.” Although, we don’t know if there’s any truth to that, so best to check Wikipedia!

First we heard the comedy of the night’s host, Joshua Meyers, which was hilarious. We really had no idea as far as what to expect from the comedians. You know Dave Chappelle, Ricky Gervais, Larry David and Eddie Murphy are some of our favorite comedians, and we generally have a pretty high bar for what’s funny, but the comedy was definitely enjoyable for the night! Plus, we had never been to an event that has comedy mixed with music, but the event kept us engaged the whole night.

Samuel Stewart was our favorite musician of the night, but all that we heard from the other musicians was also good. Fu, short for Fuquan, was our favorite comedian, although everyone made several funny jokes in their acts. We actually got to chat a bit with Fu before his show and he was good dude, willing to talk to us about whatever, and agreed to get in a few photos. So, we might be biased by that, but Fu is also straight hilarious, which you’ll see for yourself if you watch his video below.

Going to this show didn’t have the feel of going to your typical show. Everyone behind throwing the show, as well as the people attending it, were all super friendly and cool. It’s not always that you go to a show and feel like you could strike up a conversation with anyone, but the vibe at the Echo Curio was all warm and fuzzy that night, and not at all snobby and exclusive. Wait, nobody slipped ecstasy in our drinks at the show, right? Wait, it was a BYOB event, so never mind. It was a fun night beginning to end though and there was nothing not to like.

One thing that’s amazing about Samuel Stewart’s music is his raw talent as a musician. We can’t help but think about the whole “fruit doesn’t far that fall from the tree,” idea, given that his father is Dave Stewart of The Eurythmics. Naturally, Sam is going his own direction with his music, but right away we were struck by sheer musical ability from him, and the professional caliber of his music. Lots of people want to be musicians, but some people don’t just have it in them. Even for famous musicians, there’s a struggle in waffling on the quality of your work, perfectionism, self-doubt, etc., but we believe Samuel Stewart should be bypassing all of that (even if he might not be) because it’s clear that he has put a lot of hard work into his tracks and has a passion for the music he makes.

We’re probably also biased towards Samuel Stewart because we think the Eurythmics made such fantastic music: our favorite track being, “Here Comes the Rain Again,” although we learned at the show from Sam’s Manager, Angela, that “Sweet Dreams, is in fact, the most popular Eurythmics track of all time. It makes sense with the Marilyn Manson cover and all, but our favorite here is still “Here Comes the Rain Again.”

At any rate, we’re reasonably satisfied with how the audio came out in the videos below, but it was just too dark (among other recording issues) in too much of the clips. Remind us to shine bright lights on all performing artists we record in the future. Video drama aside, the show was still great fun and it’s too bad if you missed it!

LA-based, Samuel Stewart, is the son of Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics, and at the young age of 21 has already been working diligently developing his musical career.

Stewart produced his brother’s record, The Giving Tree by Django James and The Midnight Squires. Sam’s first EP, The Beginner is forthcoming, set for release in mid-October.

Here’s the first track and title track from the record:

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Check out more from Samuel Stewart, including tour dates, here:
myspace.com/samuelstewartmusic

Check out more from Sam Stewart at his Myspace.

Also check out Plays Well With Others if you like what you saw/heard.