Talented Rock band “INTERCONTINEN7AL“, shared their new song called “Lipstick On Your Collar” from their latest album “Intercontinen7al, Vol.4“, which is available on all digital stores.

BEHIND THE SCENES, LET’S KNOW MORE ABOUT THE ARTISTS: The origins of INTERCONTINEN7AL date back to March 2020, when COVID-19 was impacting people around the globe and lockdowns had sidelined live music. Members of the local Columbia, MD band Toast (Matt Smith, Jamie Miller, Ben Gaither, Emily Betz and guest Becca Drayer) sought avenues to continue collaborating and playing together virtually. The band discovered the application BandLab, and were soon sharing drum tracks, guitar riffs, and other ideas among themselves. A few months later, the band recognized the potential of BandLab’s public community, and decided to publish internal song ideas outside the band framework – making them “forkable” and unlocking them with hashtags (ex. #needsvocals) so that any BandLab user can contribute. Matt posted a grunge-inspired instrumental acoustic song idea of his tentatively called Aslin. Within days, multiple lead/harmony vocal submissions were received, including North America’s Hope Gray’s backing vocals and South America’s Gustavo Prida’s lead vocals (sung in Spanish), transforming Aslin into No Somos De Este Lugar. The band continued this process, posting a blues idea by Matt and Jamie for external contributors, and this soon evolved into the song When I’m Gone, with David Lee Rendon from North America on vocals and Robert James Shoveller from Australia on lead guitar. In late August 2020, Matt was walking in his backyard when an idea struck him like a lightning bolt: what if the band adopts the Sonic Highways concept that Foo Fighters had (which was recording music with artists from several cities in the United States), and expands it to move forward with further international cooperation, seeking a musician from every continent to participate. The name INTERCONTINEN7AL was born, with the 7 in the name inspired by the band Tool’s song “7empest”. For the remaining musicians, the band contacted friends, former bandmates and family members who were fellow North American musicians (i.e. bassists Devin Heritage, Alex Burke), and used Explore and Creator Connect features in BandLab to target by location and instrument type to establish additional musician connections (i.e. guitarist Josh Pearlson of Africa). The band also reviewed musicians’ profiles that we were following to see who they were collaborating with, or who was commenting on their songs to try to recruit other participants, to include Nerse of Asia. Europe is represented by musicians such as Poland’s Marcin Nawrocki, who was recruited after flagging one of the band’s song ideas for potential collaboration, and the talented vocalist Rieneke from the Netherlands. To locate the two musicians from Antarctica, Matt contacted numerous active research stations in September 2020 to determine if there were researchers that happened to be musicians on site, and successfully recruited Aymar de Lichervelde and Stijn Thoolen. The final result was the epic progressive rock song “Manor Hill”, featuring musicians from all 7 continents to include Aymar and Stijn who were stationed in Antarctica.

BAND MEMBERS: AFRICA Josh Pearlson – guitar Jukerok – guitar, piano ANTARCTICA Aymar de Lichtervelde – guitar ASIA Nerse – violin Tnbt – drums AUSTRALIA Robert James Shoveller – guitar Cecily* – *guest vocals EUROPE Andrasta – vocals/lyrics Bubbas Bentlass – vocals/lyrics Darren Fellows – piano/guitar(programming) Marcin Nawrocki – guitar, bass, programming (drums), mixing, mastering Miami73 – guitar Rieneke van Laarhoven – vocals/lyrics Rousevision – piano NORTH AMERICA Alex Burke – bass, synthesizers Dirty D – saxophone Becca Drayer – vocals Hope Gray – vocals David Green – vocals Devin Heritage – bass Matt Smith – guitar, vocals, programming (piano, drums, violin, vibraphone), mixing SOUTH AMERICA Nereo – bass.

Talking about the band’s main influences, they said: “Due to the sheer size of the band, we have a multitude of influences, ranging from 90’s rock like Pearl Jam, Chris Cornell, John Frusciante, to Prince, Meat Loaf, Beatles, Stones, Tool, Porcupine Tree, Jim Steinman…the list goes on. These artists have made a major footprint on our musical psyche, and as a result our group covers a wide range of genres, such as heavy metal, pop, blues, funk, reggae, prog rock, and even showtunes, so no stone is left unturned.”

Regarding the meaning of their song “Lipstick On Your Collar” , they said: “Lipstick On Your Collar is about moving on from a relationship that is no longer beneficial, and realizing your partner is not the person you initially thought.”, they continue, “Lipstick On Your Collar was recorded virtually across 4 continents – North America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. The primary band members involved in production, mixing and mastering were USA’s Matt Smith (bandleader), Marcin Nawrocki (Poland), and Rousevision (from Germany).Matt Smith wrote the primary guitar part, and was inspired to write a funkier, faster section than he normally composes (in order to diversify his normal songwriting approach). Rieneke from the Netherlands then added a wonderful vocal melody on top, and other layers such as Jukerok’s beautiful guitar solo (from Egypt) and Dale Pearson’s soulful saxophone (USA) were incorporated later on.”

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Listen now (INTERCONTINEN7AL – Lipstick On Your Collar) via our Pop playlist below: