The Bay Area’s Tallest Man Records is excited to announce the release of “Nobody Wins” the first track off the forthcoming EP Universe Out of Time from 7 Come 11 due out on September 29th.
7 Come 11 is the brainchild of San Francisco Bay based musician Gianni Staiano. The project was created with Staiano and his Hammond B3 as the focal point, which for this new EP has expanded to include a whammy clavinet, modified to Staiano’s specs by Ken Rich at Sound Services. The clav, with the whammy bar adds a level of heaviness to the 7 Come 11 sound, mimicking searing guitar like wails (all created by the clav) that are all over the EP. “I saw a Castlebar Clavinet on YouTube years ago and was blown away,” says Staiano. “Of course, only like 7 were made back in the 70's and good luck finding one for sale. In the search though I found Ken Rich who had taken the initial concept which was fraught with design flaws and reimagined it. His creation changed my musical life. All of a sudden, I could be super expressive with a keyboard instrument. Bending notes and playing the in between ones. Things I've been fantasizing about since childhood now suddenly at my fingertips. This was something I could man-handle and really feel the connection to the strings. It's like a whole new universe of expressive possibilities has been opened up to me. That's why I guess this is more of a rock album and way wilder sounding.”
“Nobody Wins” was the very first song recorded with the whammy clav and is the most raw track on the album. The track is two takes pieced together, and was Staiano’s first real bonding moment with the whammy clav, where the instrument showed him what it was capable of, including making some decisions of its own.
The track opens with distorted vocals stating “We’re all the same people, We’re all the same race, If we don’t come together, Nobody wins.” This track was written in the fall of 2016 where the topics of immigration and race dominated the news feeds and stayed on the tip of the Nation’s tongue amidst the rise of Trump’s Nationalist movement. This tension can be felt in the heaviness of the song and the strain of the whammy bar bending the notes on the clavinet. In the wake of Charlottesville, the weight and depth of “Nobody Wins” is more palpable now than ever.
This past year has seen Staiano share the stage with some of his musical heroes the funky METERS, and The Original Meters whom he has supported on numerous shows, including the Original Meters 50th anniversary show at the Orpheum Theatre in New Orleans during the New Orleans’ Jazz and Heritage Festival. He has also warmed up the rooms for dance inducing funk power houses Con Brio, Lettuce, and Ivan Neville’s Dumpstaphunk.
Staiano’s forward thinking musical heroes, like the Meters, have been the driving force for him to push the limits and boundaries of his sonic creativity— and more specifically, how he can merge his classically trained musical mind with new technology. The result is a whiplash mélange of futuristic funk it that calls to mind a sonic dance party with Herbie Hancock by way of Daft Punk. This process has been a slow burn for Staiano, who attended the Berklee College of Music before studying jazz at San Diego State. Although Staiano grew up removed from the world of dance, 7 Come 11’s music has developed into a sonic dance party. Staiano’s version of dance music comes from his intense study of West African music. Staiano fell hard for dance music, while traveling the region to study with its most dedicated disciples, and now feels it as an essential part of his musical being. Staiano describes simply, that was he is making is music that he wants to dance to. With this new record and new instrumentation Staino dives even deeper into experimenting with technology and making music that moves him.
Staino will be taking 7 Come 11 out on the road this fall. Tour dates to be announced soon.
