LIVING COLOUR vocalist Corey Glover and ADRENALINE MOB guitarist Mike Orlando have launched a new project called SONIC UNIVERSE. The group, whose lineup is completed by bassist Booker King and drummer Taykwuan Jackson, will release its debut album, “It Is What It Is”, on May 10 via earMUSIC. The 10-song effort was produced, engineered, and mixed by Orlando at his Sonic Stomp Studios.
The official music video for the LP’s third single, the “It Is What It Is” title track, can be seen below.
Complemented by the rhythm section of King and Jackson, Glover and Orlando soar over what the singer called “a tight, tight, tight groove.”
Glover continued: “The whole idea is that in order to make something new, you have to destroy the old. We do everything we can to change things, but the only way that you can change things is to believe.”
“Right now / Right here/ Is all that it is / We lie / We try / It’s all we can give.”
“It Is What It Is” is Glover and SONIC UNIVERSE giving their all to make a break with the past and create something new and honest.
“The band is killing it on this,” Glover concluded. “It’s a real gut-punch kind of sound.”
“It Is What It Is” track listing:
01. I Am
02. It Is What It Is
03. Turn A Blind Eye
04. My Desire
05. Whisper To A Scream
06. Higher
07. Life
08. Come What May
09. I Want It All
10. Beautiful Disunity
When the collaboration between Glover and Orlando was first announced in 2019, Orlando described the project’s musical direction in an interview with “Talking Metal” as “just straight-up rock. It’s heavy rock. Of course, it’s just one hundred percent chock-full of Corey Glover and my guitar styles. [It’s] bluesy [and] funky. There’s a little RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE in there. There’s a little bit of soul in there. All the stuff that I love kind of just melded into one melting pot. It’s just a conglomeration of styles all melded into one. There’s no one particular thing that it screams. It’s just heavy, hard rock kick in you know what. [Laughs]”
Describing the upcoming album as “one of the best things I have ever done,” Mike said that Corey “is not only the coolest cat going, but he is one of the greatest singers on this earth. It’s such an amazing experience to play with Corey and to be doing an album with him.”
He added: “It’s everything you would imagine from Corey, and I add my element to it, which is different than I’ve ever done. It’s not ADRENALINE MOB, it’s not SONIC STOMP — this is something really cool and different for me, so it’s even that much more special for me.”
Orlando and Glover played their first show together in September 2019 at the Iridium in New York City.
Back in 2016, Mike was injured in an ADRENALINE MOB road accident that resulted in the death of the band’s bassist, David Zablidowsky.
At the time of the accident, ADRENALINE MOB was touring in support of its third studio album, “We The People”, which was released in June 2017 via Century Media.