NEW YORK (www.kingsxonline.com) - The critically acclaimed, highly influential Texas-based rock trio King's X has signed with Inside Out
Music America. The band's recent work has been released by Inside Out except in North America, and signing with IOMA unifies its label worldwide.
The first new King's X album from guitarist/vocalist Ty Tabor, bass guitarist/vocalist Doug Pinnick and drummer/vocalist Jerry Gaskill under the new deal, Ogre Tones, will be released in North America on September 27, 2005.
"Signing with InsideOut is due to the longstanding relationship we have with the great people at the label like Thomas Waber in Germany and Jim Pitulski here in America," says Tabor. "It's another opportunity where we found ourselves free to make a change. We have signed with a new booking agent too.
"With Inside Out, we have that friendship and we have the same goals. They are also realistic and honest. They don't pull punches. It's a logical match."
Tabor first got to know Waber and Pitulski in recent years via his solo and all-star side projects such as Platypus, The Jelly Jam and Jughead that were released by InsideOut. Gaskill's solo album Come Somewhere was also issued by the label.
The new King's X album was produced by Michael Wagener, who has produced, engineered or mixed work by the likes of Metallica, Alice Cooper, Queen, Ozzy Osbourne, Dokken, Megadeth, Motley Crue, Skid Row, Extreme and many others.
"This was a big change for us after years of self-producing our albums. We wanted to be free to focus on the music itself. Things were often fragmented the past several years. I had to oversee a lot of business things - such as working with different labels for different territories - that sometimes didn't allow me to really focus on the music as much as I wanted," Tabor says.
"Michael wasn't pushing us in any one direction. It was just four guys having a good time creating sounds and music. It's a broad-sounding record. It's hard to compare our music from album to album, but vocally this one has elements of early King's X and sonicaly it's similar to our recent ones.
"It feels so fresh to be able to concentrate fully on the music. I honestly believe this new album is our best record in many, many years."
King's X also plans to shoot videos for two singles from the album, their first promotional clips since 1998's 'Tapehead.' They will be directed by Dr. Teeth, who has helmed videos that are all over MTV for artists such as new hip-hop sensation Mike Jones. Tabor loves Dr. Teeth's hip-hop videos - "The guy is extremely talented," he says - and they met through mutual friends in Houston.
Tabor explains that the band is refreshed after having taken this year off so far.
"This was our first break after five straight years of torturous work on King's X and side projects. It was absolutely non-stop. Zero time off," he says.
King's X is back with renewed energy and creative fire, and the eclectic nature of the band's work and Inside Out's expertise in quality handmade music makes it a perfect partnership.
