Pineo & Loeb weren’t exactly lowering the bar with ELEVATION. As easy as it would be to dismiss their latest album for being a collection of covers, they’ve picked some amazing songs and collaborators to work with. These covers feel like genuine upgrades, breathing fresh life into songs that long held positions at the top of the game. Today the duo released their first video from the album: a cover, featuring After Funk and Liinks, of Michael Jackson’s Grammy-nominated hit from 1995, “Earth Song.” Honestly, we might like it better than the original.
“We’ve been life long fans of Michael Jackson and feel his years of humanitarian/environmental activism get overshadowed a bit so covering the personal favourite ‘Earth Song’ was a great way to pay tribute. I read that he wrote the song underneath a tree and thought about how powerful that simple melody was, like the voice of the planet and how it could be re-interpreted endlessly. We wanted to take that core idea into our world of electronics, synths and beats and create something totally different sounding but true to the spirit of the original song,” says Mitchell Pineo.
Each of the tracks on ELEVATION feature an impressive collaboration, but sometime tracks nail the choice in collaborators dead on. Working with Yanick Allwood of After Funk and Georgia Murray of Liinks created a sweet and salty mix that doesn’t needlessly try to compete with that razor edge of Jackson’s vocals on the original.
“We left it up to the artists and gave them minor direction. Yannick and Georgia are professionals and they both killed it,” says JR Loeb.
“It’s cool to have guy and girl singing it as a duet. Pineo does some background vocals on the song too at a couple of spots.”
Pineo & Loeb’s ELEVATION is available via iTunes now and there are promises of a limited run of physical copies coming.
Tour Dates:
02.28.19 – Victoria, BC @ Victoria Event Centre
03.01.19 – Cumberland, BC @ The Waverley
03.02.19 – Vancouver, BC @ The Red Room
03.07.19 – Kelowna, BC @ Doc Willoughby’s
03.08.19 – Squamish, BC @ The KnottyBurl
03.09.19 – Prince George, BC @ Heartbreakers Nightclub
03.14.19 – Grande Prairie, AB @ The Den
03.15.19 – Edmonton, AB @ Rec Room South Edmonton
03.16.19 – Saskatoon, SK @ Capitol Music Club
03.17.19 – Fernie, BC @ The Central
03.21.19 – Revelstoke, AB @ The Last Drop
03.22.19 – Red Deer, AB @ Hybrid Ultra Lounge
03.23.19 – Jasper, AB @ 4 Peaks Nightclub
03.27.19 – Whistler, BC @ Garibaldi Lift Co.
03.29.19 – Vancouver, BC @ University of British Columbia
03.30.19 – Nanaimo, BC @ Evolve Nightclubz
04.02.19 – Tofino, BC @ The Legion
04.04.19 – Calgary, AB @ University of Calgary
04.05.19 – Nelson, BC @ Bloom Nightclub
04.06.19 – Kamloops, BC @ Duchess Nightclub
04.07.19 – Canmore, AB @ The Drake
04.08.19 – Banff, AB @ Wild Bill’s Legendary Saloon