Everybody’s Talkin’ is the new single from Me and My Friends, out now on all digital platforms. This radical reimagining of a country classic is both comfortingly familiar and unsettlingly spooky, a collision of achingly haunting vocals, vintage soul beats and experimental use of the guitalele. The result is Portico Quartet, Etta James and Thomas Mapfumo all rolled into one:
“I was playing around with weaving a sliver of train ticket through the strings of a guitalele, and the buzzy sound reminded me of the mbira [East African thumb piano] and the hang drum. I tried to recreate a Portico Quartet-style groove and suddenly Madeleine Peyroux’s jazz ballad version of ‘Everybody’s Talkin’ came to mind. This strange combination developed so organically and we joked that we should put it out in time to be a quirky Christmas single” said singer and guitarist Nick Rasle.
Everybody’s Talkin’ is the third single from Me and My Friends upcoming album Before I Saw The Sea. Started over a decade ago, the quintet’s unique blend of Afrobeat-inspired grooves, rich vocal harmonies, languidly graceful cello and playfully funky clarinet has carved out their very own niche of sun-drenched music for the soul, gaining support from the likes of Gilles Peterson, FiP, Soundway Records, Nubiyan Twist and Quantic.
Me and My Friends channel English folk and Afrobeat on ‘Everybody’s Talkin”
