The Wichita-based outfit will celebrate the kickoff of its upcoming tour Saturday, Sept. 30, at The Brickyard before taking to the road to play dates in New Orleans, Atlanta, Memphis and other locales.
The record perfectly encapsulates Love's sense of soulful, radio-ready pop with pieces such as "Cocaine Crowd," "Good Time" and "Just Another Heartbreak."
Led by Rudy Love, Jr., The Encore consists of Marrque Nunley (drums), Rachelle Love (percussionist), Willy Simms (guitar) and DJ Breathett (bass).
Simms and Love recently spoke with KMUW about the making of this new release and the bond that the band has with tradition.
The interview has been edited for clarity and length.
Tell me about the title of this EP because it seems like it's significant in bringing the material together.
Rudy Love: Definitely, definitely. "The Beauty of Burdens" came to us when we were privileged enough to be sitting in a nice, well-built studio by local Josh Cary, Midtopia Studios. We were having trouble trying to piece together this thing while also being lucky enough to be creating it, and it reminded us of our families and our legacy that we're carrying on and how everything that they did pushed us to the point [of] where we were. The only burden that we carry is keeping that legacy going. It's kind of beautiful. I think that we started there.
With this band, I like [to say] that it's the hardest band to work with, but it's the easiest at the same time.
Willy Simms: [Laughs.] It's hard working with family.
RL: Will is a fairly elusive figure.
WS: I can't let you know all the moves that I make.
RL: We call him Showtime because he will always show up at showtime.
WS: [Laughs.]
RL: We think about the burden of being a band in our 30s, having separate lives [outside the band] but it's what makes the music great, ultimately.
How long have the two of you known each other? Because I sense there's some real history.
RL: About 20 years?
WS: Yeah, 20 years.
RL: Maybe a little less than that. But me and Willy started working together… we were at a gig [where] Nathan Williams or somebody was playing.
WS: Magma Bear.
RL: Yeah, Magma Bear back in the day. He walked up and said, "Man, I play guitar." I said, "Man, cool. I'm playing this show, come through."
WS: He thought he was inviting me to just watch but for some reason I showed up with my rig and played that show.
RL: He played this song called "The Fool." He'd never heard it before, never played it with me but I think he played the part … the first time that you played it, it was the part for the song. It only evolved. It never truly changed. It was always that part. I think in an alternate reality if we met yesterday, we'd still understand each other the same way that we do. We can go months or a year without seeing each other and as soon as we jump on stage [it's there]. It's that way with all of us. The five of us are like that.
Before we had The Encore, I was just doing gigs as Rudy Love Jr. or whatever. We had about 20 different names for this specific piece, but these were always the musicians that I felt could translate the original content, that I would cook up and come up with. Nobody could speak musically directly to the idea that I was trying to get to more than them.
WS: With a lot of musicians, it's kind of hard to find the language. But we've always seemed to speak the same one, so it's been a blessing.
I wanted to ask you about one of the singles, "Good Time."
RL: [Laughs.]
What I love about this is that the music is so upbeat and it's happy. Then you listen to the lyrics and it's kind of like, "I'm not sure."
RL: [Laughs.]
WS: [Laughs.]
RL: By design. It was intentional. We spent a lot of time out in L.A. The goal was always to write the perfect…
WS: Anthem.
RL: Air quotations, the perfect pop song, that would make people dance and happy and was perfectly manufactured in a way that was catchy and made you feel good. So, I thought a good idea would be to twist that concept on its head and make something that is all of those things but also speaks to a darker story. There's a lot of humor in it as well. Influences are like "The Hangover" and "Weekend at Bernie's," some classic '80s movies. So, the song itself is realistically about addiction and the cyclical nature of it all.
That is something that I wanted to touch on, too. There is some heavy emotional stuff that you bring up on the record but there is always that humor gliding in and keeping it from getting too dark.
RL: Our families … The Love family I can speak to. They went through so much tragedy that they learned how to laugh at their pain. I think that that speaks to the Black experience in general, an ability to remain optimistic and jovial about the most pessimistic and terrible things. We wanted to somehow find a way to convey that thing. The story itself in ["Good Time"], I didn't live it but [was inspired] by experiences, just being around people.
WS: I think his songwriting and "Good Time" in particular speaks to how life can be too real. If you don't find a way to add some levity to the situation, it can be overwhelming. So, the story itself is dark but thematically it seems happy. That's an awesome point. Our families have experienced loss, grief, addiction. Finding a way to speak about that and not have it be extremely dark [is important].
RL: The only way to get through it is to go through it.
