Danish rock n 'roll power trio Otan Raw releases Robert Johnson cover as second single from debut album
Copenhagen, Denmark based rock n’ roll power trio OTAN RAW has set the release of their self titled debut album for May 26th 2023. This past March, the debut single ‘Still I wanna go there’ was released and today, OTAN RAW shares the album’s second single, which is a interpretation of blues icon Robert Johnson's classic 'Rambling on my mind',
Singer and guitarist Kristian Hoffmann states on the cover version: "We wanted to make a tribute to blues music, which I myself have deep roots in, and see how far we could take it, so Robert Johnson was an obvious choice, as some of the earliest blues I know of. For me, it's just a statement about how much blues music can do!"
Also, listen to OTAN RAWs debut single ‘Still I wanna go there’ HERE
In their music and appearance, OTAN RAW is the embodiment and reinvention of the classic power rock trio format. The trio carries a 50 years tradition of raw rock power, from the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Cream and Mountain through 70’s punk, 80’s UK psych rock and 90’s grunge represented in the pinnacle that is Nirvana. Fine musicianship, raw energy and songwriting comes together in the band’s music forming an eternally relevant voice speaking authentically of the human condition.
OTAN RAW came to life through a lively jam session in 2019 where the two experienced musicians, guitarist and vocalist Kristian Hoffmann and bass player Emil Brun Madsen instantly clicked and agreed upon playing music together. They called upon their mutual friend and drummer Troels Sejr Drasbeck to form OTAN RAW, and the trio wrote the first tunes and played their first shows, just before the pandemic made the world go silent. During the lockdown the trio agreed upon making an album, and they immersed themselves in the process. The band recorded the basic tracks of eight songs live over a few days in Drasbeck’s own studio and spent the next year dubbing and mixing the album.
OTAN RAW now presents their debut album of eight explosive rock n’ roll tracks being “a brutal rebirth without no musical limits”, in the band’s own words. The album unleashes years of locked up energy with its soaring slide guitar, soulful vocals, pounding drums and melodic bass lines pulling the band together as a tight unit with something to say. Songs as ‘I Dreamed’, Bubbles’ of Love’ and ‘Clouds’’ and the album’s sole cover, blues master Robert Johnson’s classic ‘Rambling On My Mind’, shows the full scale of the band’s dynamic capabilities, and the sheer potential of rock’n roll as an expressive artform, as the band grooves hard while touching upon existential issues such as love, loss and pain.
OTAN RAW stands out as a unit insisting on rock n’ roll as an eternal musical force, the album as its right format and the ability to play and write well as key to expression of artistic intent, even in the modern day musical landscape. There’s no way around it, rock n’ roll will never die, and OTAN RAW and their debut album is the proof to show for it. Catch the band in their right element, live on stage, when you have the chance, and experience rock n’ roll power, craftsmanship and songwriting in its finest and purest form.
