Satellite Party 'Ultra Payloaded' album

There are people who follow trends and there are those that set them. Since first bursting out of the L.A. club scene in the late ‘80s, Perry Farrell has been in the latter category, emerging as one of music's most influential figures and cultural leaders. Now, in his first musical endeavor in four years, Farrell is launching his most anticipated creation to date: Satellite Party, an ambitious new musical group with a bold conceptual album entitled Ultra Payloaded (Columbia Records) that will further cement his status as one of music’s true revolutionaries.

After assembling what would become one of the greatest rock bands of all time, Jane's Addiction, Farrell conceived Lollapalooza, the seminal music festival that encapsulated youth culture and launched the traveling concert experience touring industry in the US. With a successful transformation from a "touring rock show" to a "destination festival" in 2005, Lollapalooza gave Chicago its largest party in the city's history with 180,000 people attending over a three day weekend in 2006. Now Farrell is preparing a new chapter with his artistic endeavors through his landmark Satellite Party project.

The idea behind Satellite Party was born out of Farrell's passionate belief that people can change the world one step at a time, and with this project, he is launching a musical movement to do just that. Weaving together an array of genres with his progressive thinking, the music of Satellite Party tells a story about a collaborative brain trust of artistic visionaries, including writers, musicians and environmentalists called The Solutionists, who seek to redesign and come up with solutions for the world. Farrell says of The Solutionists, “We make change fashionable and use the arts as a catalyst for change.”

Blending sounds as varied as rock, electro, urban beats and symphony, Farrell enlisted guitar virtuoso Nuno Bettencourt with new musicians Kevin Figueiredo on drums, Etty Lau Farrell on background vocals and Carl Restivo on bass. “When I put a band together, I settle for nothing less than the best,” he said of the musicians that will bring Satellite Party to life.

The album, produced by Farrell, co-produced by Nuno Bettencourt and executive produced by Steve Lillywhite, features a host of guests including The Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Flea and John Frusciante, UK production duo/beat-makers Hybrid, New Order/Joy Division bassist Peter Hook, downtempo pioneers Thievery Corporation, Porno for Pyros' guitarist Peter DiStefano, Black Eyed Peas’ Fergie, film composer Harry Gregson-Williams (Chronicles of Narnia, Kingdom of Heaven), and a 30-piece orchestra.

One of the album's highlights features an unreleased Jim Morrison vocal track, the first unheard Morrison performance in almost 30 years, of which Farrell has been given permission by The Doors estate work with. Entitled "Woman In The Window," Morrison sings against a backdrop of Farrell's music, "Just try and stop us, we're going to love" before the song culminates with an elegant piano outro. Farrell calls the track the mantra of The Solutionists. “When you hear it, it sounds as though Jim Morrison were watching us and commenting on the world today,” said Farrell, who was “in awe” of the prescience of Morrison’s images and used the song to tell of a majestic, yet troubled Earth from the vantage point of an angel.”

The Doors were also in the back of Farrell’s mind as he recorded the album. As he told The Los Angeles Times recently, “The Doors epitomized everything that I loved about musicians and music. They were the voice of their generation. They saw things, and they set it to music. Like The Doors, I want to make sure our music is eternal.”

The album’s title track, “Ultrapayloaded,” was the first song written for the project, which Farrell described as “a great hybrid of all these different musical compositions.” Another standout is the album’s first single, “Wish Upon A Dogstar,” a pop/dance gem, co-written by Peter Hook. Farrell also shows his softer side on the tender “Awesome,” a song written after the birth of his son, which marries David Bowie-esque vocals with the genteel nature of Nick Drake.

Other standouts include “The Solutionists,” a song co-written by Thievery Corporation that melds funk with ‘a deep soul groove. Farrell and Satellite Party also hit a Sly Stone-like groove in the appropriately named “Only Love, Let's Celebrate,” marrying calypso and disco. Next up is the impossible to categorize “Hard Life,” featuring Farrell along with Flea and Frusicante, and again defying genres on “Mr. Sunshine,” a track where Bettencourt provides a Led Zeppelin-esque bassline that Farrell matches with ‘70s funk.

Three years in the making, Ultra Payloaded is an album that will further cement Farrell's status as one of world's true artistic visionaries. More than just an album, Ultra Payloaded is a wake-up call to the world’s people about global warming. The album’s message is imbued with the same passion and idealism with which Farrell has lived his life-- from working to better the environment (when he took his Lollapalooza proceeds to work with the Costa Rican government on rainforest preservation) to defending human rights (when he raised a substantial amount of money for the relief fund and the rescuing of slaves in Sudan). The environment has always been one of Farrell’s top priorities, and he has been involved with several organizations and people, including fellow activist and friend Laurie David, Stop Global Warming (www.stopglobalwarming.com), the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Al Gore’s Current TV, in the battle to fight global warming for over a decade. Farrell recently brought the Satellite Party song "Woman In The Window" to the Global Cool organization (www.global-cool.com), who found a potent sonic anthem in the track, given their mission to inspire audiences through music to embrace shared responsibility for the planet. The organization has been allowed to utilize it as a theme song for its upcoming campaign. Farrell also traveled to London to meet with Prime Minister Tony Blair to discuss the song’s message and present his plan to end global warming.

Yet, while there is a message within Satellite Party, it is still an album first and foremost, and it's a record that finds Farrell in prime form. He wants people to understand that the music is what drives his story.

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Satellite Party - Ultra Payloaded