Supergroup Ready To Release Vinyl

If you missed your Christmas present from Glenn Strothers, no worries, you’ll have another chance at it March 17 at the Rex Theater. Strothers known for his work with Jazzam and ChopShop assembled a Pittsburgh super group called Arkesh and has been keeping the project under wraps for a while now, except for a brief streaming session December 25th, gaining over 1,000 plays!

The future funk, jazz fusion band is made up of members from Jazzam, Back Stabbing Good People, The Commonheart, Wreck Loose, ChopShop and Old E. All-Stars among others. “Pittsburgh has such great musicians and many of them are close friends of mine, so my next idea was to open this up to several other local guys and make the music a much bigger collaborative effort,” says Stothers.

With Strothers’ keen ear for music he already knew who he wanted to bring in for each song, recruiting the likes of Clinton Clegg of the Commonheart and Max Sommerville of Wreck Loose. Kyle Lawson of the Old E. All Stars, was supposed to only have one song but ended up with several. “He made them seem like they were intended for him,” says Strothers. “Langston Kelly came in for some horn parts and creative ideas and he ended up being the missing piece in a lot of this record. He has vocals, sax, flute, whistles, and all sorts of unique stuff on it,” he continues.

Strothers worked on the project with longtime friend and collaborator John Riley, known for his drum work and producing. The only catch was that Riley was now living in Tahoe, California. 90% of the album was created with the duo never setting foot in the same studio. With the help of Splice, a music sharing and collaboration platform, they could see each others songs and edits in minutes.

“He (Riley) did come back to Pittsburgh for a week long trip in October to finish some touch ups and give some more direction with certain parts. We had guys in and out of my house all hours of the day for a week! My wife was so cool and supportive during the whole process and I can honestly say without her there is no way this could’ve come to life, admits Strothers.

The newly formed group will play in San Francisco in the future, with some of the Pittsburgh musicians along with notable fill ins on the west coast, but until then Arkesh’s vinyl release show will be March 17 at the Rex Theater. The 21 + event will be free but placing a ticket order at ticketfly is suggested.

“We will not only do the tunes from the record but also open the tunes up so that the musicians can have some freedom to do what we do best. IMPROV!”

“Long term goals are just to keep making music, keep learning our craft, and utilizing the resources that we’ve made over the years. Music is way more important to us than the business side of things for now. Touring is ultimately going to happen but currently we are working on developing our web presence and our brand as producers, songwriters, and recording artists. Our intention is very simply to try and make as good music as possible. The kind that we want to hear ourselves.”

“No Water” Featuring Max Somerville (must be logged into FB)