Toronto-based Famous Underground, featuring former Slik Toxik frontman Nick Walsh, have released a new single "Sludge Garden". Check out the official lyric video below.
Walsh acknowledges the public’s tolerance for inauthenticity has kept him singularly focused on ensuring he projects his true musical identity in every note of the band#s recently released five-song EP, In My Reflection. “Fans, critics and most people can smell through bullshit. As an artist, my job is to make sure I’m comfortable creating it and presenting it,” he says.
While the musical relationship between Walsh and bassist Laurie-Anne Green Green dates back more than two decades, the former’s history in music is even more extensive, having fronted the Juno Award winning Canadian hard-rock band Slik Toxik. Following the group’s demise, Walsh immersed himself in a myriad of projects, running the gamut from owning a recording studio, working in film and television, and touring North America with Classic Albums Live.
Walsh and Green had worked on projects together in the past, and in 2011 decided to form Famous Underground. They released their debut album independently that same year, which was subsequently licensed for world-wide release in 2013. Leaning upon a veritable number of classic influences from the world of hard rock and heavy metal, Famous Underground’s take no prisoners approach to music reaffirms guitar-driven rock music is far from dead.
“Famous Underground is my passion project. It’s music that comes from my soul,” Walsh explains. “I am grateful that the band share my vision and end up owning it themselves - that's what I call real.”
Following the release of a digital 45 in 2017, the band, which also includes guitarist Darren Boyd and drummer Desche Sparboom, amassed 14 songs for a full-length album that was originally due out in 2020. Not surprisingly, the pandemic disrupted those plans, sending Walsh and Green back to the drawing board in some respects. After all, the dynamic vocalist has a unique perspective on the music business, having cut his musical teeth on the “old” model of record companies being the gatekeepers to success, through disruptors like Napster and file-sharing, up to the present day of music on demand.
“It’s remarkable to watch how technology shifts the industry so quickly,” says Walsh. “It’s so important to stay on top of how the landscape is evolving. We wanted to ensure we were going about the release of this new music in the right way, rather than dropping all 14 songs with no fanfare.”
In My Reflection tracklisting:
"The Dark One Of Two"
"Corrupted"
"Until The End"
"Ultra Mega"
"Like An Animal"
"The Dark One Of Two"
"Like An Animal"
One of the most notable facets that time has brought to Famous Underground is a sense of maturity and life experience. Although those facets of life might have been missing during his tenure in Slik Toxik - through no one’s fault - Walsh embraces the opportunity to have gained valuable insights and observations over the last 30 years. It has given him a world view that could not be artificially manifested. There is a polished, intense rawness to the songs featured on In My Reflection that is both similar and dissimilar to anything Walsh has done in the past. However, he might not have arrived at this critical junction in his career without the benefit of the experiences he’s lived through.
“Back in the early days of Slik Toxik, we were singing about reaching for the brass ring, women and partying; all pretty typical stuff for guys in their late teens and early 20s,” Walsh says. “I couldn’t get away with writing about that shit now. I’m more interested in writing about the world around me and the human condition; the struggles within; duality; and the world around us. I’m a big believer in the whole yin/yang thing and how important it is to find balance in the world.”
Famous Underground is:
Nick Walsh - Lead Vocals, Guitars, Keyboards, Programming
Laurie-Anne Green - Bass Guitar
Darren Boyd - Lead Guitar
Desche Sparboom – Drums
Touring Musicians:
Michael Wolfgang Verbeke – Guitar
Ange M – Guitar
(Photo - Pete Dove)
