An unexpected meeting, midnight mixing sessions and now a debut album release, Frank Bellerby and Dean Glass have spent the past ten months cooking up a storm of the musical variety, the resulting product; Fresh tracks from the Kitchen of Cool.
Under the name Happy Juice, the duo’s album includes an eclectic collection of tracks taking you on a “sonic journey into the unknown.’ Drawing inspiration from the likes of the Velvet Underground, Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin’s earlier sound, the album was recorded in the Kitchen of Cool; not quite a studio, but still a place of greatness.
With special features from numerous other members of the community, Frank says the album was made with “a lot of soul, a lot of passion and bucket loads of coffee.”
It all started for Frank a couple of years ago. Having always wanted to play the drums, he and a friend Mark Reynolds decided to start a band, The Shed.
“Only one of us had ever played an instrument before, we were quite bad actually. The resulting sound would’ve probably made your ears bleed. But we got better.” Says Frank.
Dean on the other hand had been playing instruments in bands since he was about 15 years old. A music producer by profession, the meeting between the two became a catalyst for the album to materialise into a reality.
Motivated by a stroke of inspiration Frank says, “Once the first song came out, they all came pouring out. I’d written a song, Love is an Auction, decided to record it, then Dean said: Let’s do an album.”
In true Raglan style, they “just did it” with everybody involved bringing something different to the table whether it was singing, helping with artwork or holding the fort at home.
“This album is a real testament to Raglan’s community spirit. If you have an idea and people that are willing to give their time you’d be surprised what meal you can come up with when everyone chips in,” says Dean.
Extremely happy with the final product, the pair will be taking a breather to focus on their other project, Raglan Records, while contemplating their next step, most likely a heavy rock album.
The new album by Happy Juice, Fresh Tracks from the Kitchen of Cool is available now from Jet.
Maki Nishiyama
