Fortress Social Club

A refreshing dose of rock and roll on the L.A. band's first full-length album

Once filled out with more than 20 members, Fortress Social Club (known to some as the "Fortress anti-Social Club") has winnowed its lineup to six musicians, honing its sound to a cohesive blend of American and British rock n’ roll.

The L.A. band released Dreamin’ the Life, its first full-length album, on June 18. The R&B-tinged album of 1960s rock is full of harmonious, bluesy tunes that convey the group’s energetic live performances, especially on the title track, which fuses psychedelic-pop lyrics and bluesy guitar riffs with a sprinkle of B-3 organ chords.

The band's main players—singer Shawn Harris, organist Jo Harris (Shawn’s sister), rhythm and lead guitarists Mykul Lee and Johnzo West, bassist Justin “Bird” Andres, and drummer Rob Humphreys—come from all over the country but they found each other at the Fortress, a studio located in downtown L.A. They happily served as guinea pigs for the recently refurbished venue, which is hidden behind hundred year old, ivy-covered brickwork.

“The Fortress, bless her heart, has become the hub thru which we’ve all entrusted our creative energy,” Lee says. “We always come out just as excited as the first time we’ve ever heard music.”

In the band's early stages, rehearsals at The Fortress were daily parties where musicians came “to drink our drinks and noodle on those first few tunes,” says Harris.

While having 20-plus people in the Fortress Social Club gave them a substantial stage presence, it inhibited their live performances. Sloppy changeovers between songs and a disjointed sound fractured the band and channeled its sound in another direction.

Embracing the hard-edged pop of The Animals, the experimental inventiveness of John Lennon and the proto-punk livelihood of T-Rex, Fortress Social Club took advantage of the Fortress’s analog and vintage equipment to reshape their freewheeling sound.

“Half the band being from the wild-west countryside brought a more American sound to our rock n’ roll, which was admittedly influenced in the songwriting stage by the British invasion,” says Harris. "Our Midwestern and Southern influences lifted us out of this Abbey Road influenced world and dropped us back [in the U.S.].”

The distinct marriage of Brit pop and R&B is strong on Dreamin’ the Life. A swinging blues beat anchors “One Woman Man” while “I Had To Laugh” is a Beatles-esque piece containing dreamy pop lyrics that stay true to the band’s original direction.

Harris describes Dreamin’ the Life as an evolution from Fortress Social Club’s only previously released recording, the 4-track EP Grando. "Grando was live rock n’ roll course 101—call it a bit of homework,” he says. "We were much more bold on Dreamin’ the Life."



Fortress Social Club isn’t slowing down. The band is already mixing and producing a follow-up album they hope to release by summer’s end.

“My overarching concept in music is to just make a lot of it,” says Harris. “I like the idea of people coming across our band in a year and feeling like they have a body of work to catch up with. I’d like people’s first response when hearing us to be like ‘F***, how’d I miss this?’”

Fortress Social Club may not hold 20 person house-party rehearsals anymore, but they’ve learned that party-time is even better after they’ve laid down some fresh tracks. - lamag.com

Premiering today is the video for "I Had To Laugh" which will appear on Fortress Social Club's full-length Dreamin' The Life, released June 18th. The group includes musicians who have recorded and toured with artists like The Matches, Maniac, Billy Ray Cyrus, Oh No Not Stereo, and The Bellrays.

In 2012, the newly opened Fortress recording studio in downtown LA provided Shawn Harris (vocals/chromatic harmonica) and Mykul Lee (guitar) the opportunity to test out their collection of vintage recording equipment. Creating what they coin as "Summer-of-Love-Fantasy Rock 'N' Roll," Fortress Social Club was born. In addition to Harris and Lee, Fortress Social Club includes Harris' sister Jo (vocalist/B-3 Organ, Mellotron), Johnzo West (lead guitarist), and Justin "Bird" Andres (bassist).

With a love for the music of John Lennon, T. Rex, The Velvet Underground and The Rolling Stones, Harris sums up the group by saying, "We're not trying to pretend that we are from another time, we are just creating the sort of music that has always sounded the most human and timeless to us." - huffingtonpost.com

Everyone loves a good cover song, right? Lord knows after watching that Guardians of the Galaxy trailer for the millionth time and having Blue Swede’s “Hooked on a Feeling” (itself a cover of Jonathan King’s cover of B.J. Thomas’ hit) stuck in my head, I made my way to YouTube for the comforting majesty of the David Hasselhoff version. Perhaps it’s the fact that we’re already familiar with the source material or the wild ways in which bands manage to metamorphose something we know and love into something wildly different, but cover songs are their own unique pleasure.

Now, with woozy, washed out guitars, a sun-soaked lo-fi surf rock aesthetic, and the best use of Rad Racer II we’ve seen since The Wizard, L.A.-based band Fortress Social Club set their sights on covering Drake’s “Hold On, We’re Going Home” to spectacular effect. Like their album Make Love, Not Babies, they recorded the cover on vintage recording equipment, which gives it a sort of nostalgia-tinted vibe and the sense you’ve uncovered a rare, forgotten track. In any event, Fortress Social Club manages to take what’s already a slick, introspective tune and turn it into a churning, roiling, yet ultimately breezy piece of pop perfection. - www.nerdist.com