Caravan of Thieves' new album, Kiss Kiss, arrives tomorrow (March 31), but you can listen to it a day early exclusively here at Music Times.
Based in Connecticut, Caravan of Thieves has a gypsy-jazz sound that is unlike most music out there today.
"Gypsy-jazz was a great starting place as an influence because of the instrumentation and the great driving rhythms it has," Carrie Sangiovanni told us.
Her husband, Fuzz, who sings and plays guitar alongside her, added that "the most essential ingredient to the gypsy-jazz that we liked was the flare of how it's performed together, it's a different spin on a campfire jam."
The band started out as duo with the Sangiovannis, but in 2008, they added violinist Ben Dean and bass player Brian Anderson.
The new album has a wide variety of musical styles ranging from the Latin-inspired "Disappear" to the Les Paul & Mary Ford-channeling "Wasting My Time." Kiss Kiss has been a few years in the making and pulls from material the couple wrote years ago.
"The album was written and produced in a few different time periods," Fuzz explained. "Each song has it's own little story."
Although the newest album explores the ups and downs of relationships and love, Caravan of Thieves wasn't pulling too much from their own experiences but rather more universal experiences.
"We're certainly a singing-songwriting team that's probably much more fictional than we are introspective," Fuzz said.
Carrie added: "Anything that comes out of you is obviously going to be influenced by things that have happened to you, but we weren't citing specific examples."
The goal of the album was to give their audiences something out of the ordinary.
"We wanted to do something where it's still a song that's very relatable and still a sound that's pretty relatable," Fuzz said. "But it's done in a way that's a palette cleanser."
The band is currently touring through May. But because new album features a lot of instrumentation that's difficult to bring on the road, such a tuba and a circus organ, the band will incorporate new arrangements for their live show for a distinct listening experience.
Check out Kiss Kiss below and pre-order it on iTunes today. For more information on Caravan of Thieves, head to their official website or follow them on Facebook and Twitter.
