Tantric 'Mind Control' album

TANTRIC’s fourth album, MIND CONTROL, will now be released August 4 on the Silent Majority Group label (through Warner Music Group’s Independent Label Group). Originally scheduled for July 21, the album was produced by Brett Hestla (Creed, Framing Hanley, Dark New Day) and is the follow-up to 2008’s THE END BEGINS, which produced the Top Five Rock hit, “Down and Out.”

The album’s first single, “Mind Control,” is currently in the Top 40 on the Mediabase Active Rock chart after only two weeks, garnering spins on over 50 radio stations nationwide including Phoenix, Detroit, Dallas, Houston and Chicago, and including Sirius XM’s “Octane” channel. A video for the track was recently shot in Nashville with director Mason Dixon (who directed the video for “Down and Out”) and will be debuting nationwide on August 4.

In touring news, the band--Hugo Ferreira (lead vocals, keyboards), Joe Pessia (guitars), Erik Leonhardt (bass and vocals), Marcus Ratzenboeck (violin) and Richie Monica (drums)—is gearing up for a U.S. tour with their special guests Aranda and Vayden starting July 31 in Syracuse, which will also include various radio station festivals along the route.

After spending nearly a year on the road promoting THE END BEGINS, Tantric returned home to begin penning their new album. Except home, for each member, was a different place in the U.S. So instead of sitting together in a rehearsal space in the same city, the members of Tantric wrote separately, sending files electronically to Hugo, who compiled them into working demos. After a few months, the band had written almost thirty songs.

“It was a really unique way of approaching a record,” Hugo says. “It was definitely more of a collaboration than the last record in terms of writing. And we wrote it together even though we were thousands of miles apart. I don’t know how, but we really wrote an incredible record in a short period of time. I’ve always wanted to make a record like this.”

The band then reconvened in the secluded studio in Poconos where they had recorded their last album, where they spent a week playing the songs live and experimenting with what they had written long distance for MIND CONTROL. Inevitably, some of the numbers shifted and evolved during that week.

“We had written the whole record over the computer,” says Erik. “So a lot of it changed once we got into the studio. When you have everyone in the same room the ideas start changing. ‘What if we do this? What if we do that?’ We definitely went heavier on this record, too. I think it has a lot to do with having all new members. This is the new band, full on and writing together. We never said ‘let’s write a heavier record,’ this is just what happened.”

The songs on MIND CONTROL are far ranging both in terms of lyrical content and sonic aesthetic, something the band feels truly encapsulates who they are as artists. The title track and first single, “Mind Control,” a song about the media, sits on the heavier end of the spectrum, chugging with propulsive guitars and an arena-ready rock melody. “What Are You Waiting For,” fills the other end of the spectrum, an emotionally urgent power ballad that immediately engages its listener. The album, as a cohesive whole, reveals the band that Tantric has become. After a tumultuous ten-year career, a shifting of members, and four albums spent searching for themselves, Tantric has solidified their line-up and crafted an album that successfully represents who they are.

“My goal is always to do what I love and survive at it,” explains Hugo, “but I would like this record to take us farther than the last record. I would like it to establish Tantric as this band that’s not going anywhere. We’ve been here for four records already and every record that we’re delivering is getting better. I’m so proud of MIND CONTROL. It’s the one I’ve always wanted to make.”

Tantric tour dates
All dates with Aranda and Vayden (except for the radio shows indicated):

Fri 7/31 Syracuse, NY Lost Horizon
* Sat 8/1 Altamont, NY WZMR Edgefest/Altamont Fairgrounds
Sun 8/2 Hartford, CT Webster Underground
Tue 8/4 Boston, MA Middle East (downstairs)
Thu 8/6 Poughkeepsie, NY The Chance
Fri 8/7 Baltimore, MD The Quarter
Sat 8/8 Laurel, DE The House Sports Bar & Grill
* Sun 8/9 Rochester, NY WZNE show/Riverside Festival Site
Tue 8/11 Pittsburgh, PA Altar Bar
Wed 8/12 Cincinnati, OH 20th Century Theatre
Fri 8/14 Louisville, KY Phoenix Hill Tavern
Sat 8/15 Flint, MI The Machine Shop
* Sun 8/16 South Bend, IN Big 10 Rock Fest/St. Patrick’s Park
Sat 8/22 Maplewood, MN The Rock
* Sun 8/23 Algona, IA Rock Gone Wild Festival/Freedom Park
Fri 8/28 Dallas, TX Trees
Sat 8/29 Houston, TX Scout Bar
Sun 8/30 Beaumont, TX Scout Bar
Wed 9/2 San Antonio, TX Scout Bar
Thu 9/3 Abilene, TX Midnite Rodeo
Fri 9/4 Lubbock, TX Tequila Jungle
Sat 9/5 Odessa, TX Dos Amigos Cantina
* Sun 9/6 Sunland Park, NM KLAQ BBQ/Western Playland
* Sat 9/12 Huntington, WV XFest 2009/Harris Riverfront Park
* Wed 9/16 York, PA York Fair

* Indicates radio show.

more Tantric information
TANTRIC--Hugo Ferreira (lead vocals, keyboards), Joe Pessia (guitars), Erik Leonhardt (bass and vocals), Marcus Ratzenboeck (violin), Richie Monica (drums)--will be releasing their fourth album, MIND CONTROL, August 4th on the Silent Majority Group label (through Warner Music Group’s Independent Label Group). It was produced by Brett Hestla (Creed, Framing Hanley, Dark New Day) and is the follow-up to 2008’s THE END BEGINS, which produced the Top Five Rock hit, “Down and Out.”

TANTRIC was formed from the ashes of Platinum acoustic rock band Days of the New. After scores of U.S. tours, multiple Rock hits including ”Breakdown,” “Mourning,” “Astounded,” “Hey Now,” and “Down and Out,” TANTRIC has grown into a mainstay at the Rock radio formats. While the band’s recurrent tracks continue to enjoy plenty of radio play, their fourth album, MIND CONTROL, is being greeted by early listeners as their “heaviest and hookiest” work to date. The title track—the album’s first single--will surely become, yet again, another rock radio staple. A video will hit the TV and Internet airwaves in the next few weeks.

MIND CONTROL is sure to follow in the footsteps of THE END BEGINS, which Billboard described as: “...remarkable...a well-realized blend of post-grunge rock, crafty melodies and pop finesse, sans overt commercial pandering.”

In touring news, look for the band to launch a full-scale summer tour in July. Details are forthcoming.

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Tantric - Mind Control