Follow The Light is the first single taken from yet another Cory Wong collaborative album, which stars the Vulfpeck speed strummer and the Stockholm trio
(Image credit: Dirty Loops/YouTube)
Cory Wong has wasted no time in putting his all-new signature Fender Stratocaster to good use, teaming up with Dirty Loops for a new edge-of-the-seat single, Follow The Light.
The Vulfpeck speed strummer’s latest musical outing sees him join forces with the Stockholm-based trio – comprised of lead singer and keys player Jonah Nilsson, bassist Henrik Linder and drummer Aron Mellergard – who specialize in a blend of gospel, soul, funk, jazz and rock.
And, as is usually the case with any of Wong’s collaborative singles, Follow The Light will not be a standalone effort, and is in fact the first offering from a new studio album titled Turbo.
An explosive opening passage punctuated with some punchy, whole-band stabs and a dizzying two-hand tapping bass guitar run gives way to a track supercharged with Wong’s snappy, funk-fueled electric guitar chordal constructions.
It’s almost as if it’s a match made in musical heaven, with Wong’s effortless see-sawing and precise right-hand strumming seamlessly integrating with Linder’s equally infectious bass lines and Nilsson’s commanding vocals.
There are no fretboard acrobatics from Wong – save for a brief harmonized interlude – though there is room for a truly killer solo from Linder.
Of his latest link-up, Wong commented, (via Live for Live Music) “My first interaction with Dirty Loops was with the viral videos of them doing insane arrangements of pop songs. Their musicianship is absolutely top tier. The only thing I thought was, Where’s the guitar?!
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“As I sat playing guitar along with the videos from my studio,” he continued, “I thought that I should reach out and see if they wanted to collaborate on something. Usually, a collaboration is just one song or a writing session, but I’ve been exploring the idea of doing collaborative albums with other artists because it allows the two visions of the artists to intermingle more.
(Image credit: Dirty Loops)
“This project really brought a lot of the musical chops side of my playing out that I often restrain from putting on my albums, and I added some restraint to parts of songs that they might [make] really intricate.
“It ended up being a perfect representation of both Cory Wong and Dirty Loops as artists and what a true collaborative project can be.”
It’s Wong’s second collaborative album of the year – following on from his effort with sax man Dave Koz, The Golden Hour – and will be his third trip to the studio in 2021 after Cory and the Wongnotes.
Turbo is available to preorder now ahead of its September 3 release.
Matt is a Senior Staff Writer, writing for Guitar World, Guitarist and Total Guitar. He has a Masters in the guitar, a degree in history, and has spent the last 16 years playing everything from blues and jazz to indie and pop. When he’s not combining his passion for writing and music during his day job, Matt records for a number of UK-based bands and songwriters as a session musician.
