John Oates gets back to ‘kicking butt’ on new album, ‘Oates’

After exploring more rootsy music with his last few solo albums, John Oates is putting the soul back into his music.

John’s new album, simply titled Oates, is due Aug. 29. “The last few albums have been very singer-songwriter, kind of acoustic-based, but I got to the point where I wanted to kick butt a little bit more,” he tells ABC Audio.

“So I had to pull out the electric guitar and the amps. And this album is much more a return to ’70s R&B soul and groove-oriented. So it’s exciting to … kind of return to where, a place that I’m very comfortable with, but at the same time something I haven’t done in a long time.” 

Helping him with that return are two young acts: Lawrence, the soul-pop band led by siblings Clyde Lawrence and Gracie Lawrence, and singer/songwriter Devon Gilfillian. In fact, hearing Lawrence inspired Oates to write a song with the same kind of feel, and he asked Clyde and Gracie to guest on it. You can hear the result on “Enough Is Enough,” which is out now.

Gilfillian co-wrote the song “Real Thing” with Oates and sings on another track, “Mending.” The album also includes Oates’ cover of Marc Cohn‘s classic “Walking in Memphis.”

Oates will start a tour June 20 in North Carolina and has dates mapped out through an Aug. 27 show at the Troubadour in West Hollywood. He’ll also perform at Milwaukee’s Summerfest on July 4.

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