A solo JoBro: Nick’s album has a ‘more rootsy’ soundInstead of referring to Nick Jonas as the “serious one,” maybe Jonas Brothers fans should start calling him the “workaholic one.”
In the spring, while his older brothers vacationed, the trio’s youngest member went to Nashville and recorded a solo album.
Nick Jonas & the Administration, which features former members of Prince’s New Power Generation, will release their album, Who I Am, on Feb. 2. The group will make its live debut performing a single of the same name on the Grammy Nominations Concert Live!! special Dec. 2 on CBS.
“I had written five or six songs that were on my heart, things that were just pouring out of me with this new and exciting sound,” says Jonas, 17. “They weren’t necessarily right for the Jonas Brothers, but I thought they could be perfect for something else.”
Jonas cut the album in eight days with producer John Fields, who also played bass. Additional members of the Administration include drummer Michael Bland and keyboardist Tommy Barbarella, both of whom played in the New Power Generation. Guitarist David Ryan Harris played on the album, but a third former NPG member, Sonny Thompson, will replace him for live shows.
Jonas describes the sound as “Heart & Soul.” “It’s a cross between my roots in R&B and soul with a kind of rock/pop music behind it,” he says.
“We would set up in individual booths and play simultaneously,” Jonas says. “There are very few overdubs on the record. Some songs are full live. It has a raw, late-’60s/early-’70s rock/soul sound.”
Drummer Bland calls the solo material “more rootsy” than a Jonas Brothers album. “It’s a very organic record,” he says. “We weren’t really thinking about format or whether a song was going to sound like a hit or not.”
The name of the band, as well as song titles such as The Rose Garden, Olive & An Arrow, Conspiracy Theory and State of Emergency, plays off of Jonas’ much-p...
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