Julio Tavarez II is a Dominican American artist and musician from Long Island, New York. Tavarez was a member of As Tall As Lions (Triple Crown/Warner), The Black and The White and currently one half of The Dirt and The Grime (AWAL) has announced plans to release a new project, extremely bad man, with British producer and songwriter Elliot James (Columbia/Sony Music/Blossöm). Their new album which debuts later this summer via Kobalt’s AWAL imprint also features MC’s / artists (Omenihu, Lex Famous, Jallal), collaborations with the duo’s crew and co-productions with urban mogul Jan Fairchild (Mos Def, N.E.R.D. Justin Timberlake).
James and Tavarez whose linage began years ago in the touring rock band scene teamed up with Northeast producer Cobeshack last summer upon realization of this new “concept/sound” they were targeting.
Julio Tavarez II- “I wanted Extremely Bad Man to be raw. Most of the takes were one shot, scratch vocals that are not tuned or cleaned up that much. You can hear imperfections all over the record. It’s very honest. “
Their self created record see’s an ambitious graduation from the two’s signature rock operated genre’s, and crosses tropes of hip-hop and urban blues. The group developed Bad Man’s unique imagery with British artist Russ Murphy also known by Ruff Mercy and will release the album in sections over the next four months.
Elliot James- “Cobe’s beats and rhythms instantaneously struck chords in Julio and I, we began to feel like we could make what we had always wanted to hear. We started laying down melodies and chopping things up into different keys and chords, it was all super fluid. All the collaborations happened naturally, we tried desperately not to force anything in the process as much as possible, and I think the final album reflects that honestly.
Teaming up with Russ (Ruff Mercy) was magic, made it all feel tangible and real, we went back and forth on over 45-50+ versions before the final Love Is Pure cover was unanimous. I’m really grateful to have found Bad Man to be an outlet for us to make art we believe in, and love unapologetically.”
The album touches themes of political bout, deception, and visually evocative love. The group mastered the LP at Capitol Records in Hollywood, CA with Evren Göknar (Red Hot Chili Peppers, D’Angelo, Smashing Pumpkins, Lenny Kravitz).
The debut album Love Is Pure will be available everywhere via AWAL later this summer. | Friday 13th July