After trailblazing the reggae-rock genre for over 3 decades, Sublime’s Eric Wilson has formed a new band in a 4-piece rock group by the name of Spray Allen. They have released their debut single and music video for the song, “Stay Clean”.
Spray Allen is not another reggae-rock band you’ll hear the God of Thunder thumbing bass to like you’re use to. This is a rock-outlet for Wilson as the music from their debut single feels like a heavy dose of psychedelic nostalgia crossed between Pink Floyd & Led Zeppelin with a modern day Jim Morrison displaying more range on vocals.
The group consists of Eric Wilson on Bass, Wade Youman on Drums, Eric Sherman on Guitar and Daniel Lonner on vocals.
The forming of the band happened about as organic as you can imagine. Sherman & Lonner had been playing music together since they were 15. After their last band broke up, they decided to move from New York to California where they wound up at Red Kudo’s studio in Los Angeles. Through a mutual friend, they were invited to go make music at Danny Way’s house. After a few nights of cranking out music, Lonner & Sherman showed Danny what they had created and he was excited by what he had heard. With the band looking for a drummer, Danny recommended Wade Youman of Unwritten Law… And 20-minutes later Wade was at the house jamming with Lonner and Sherman.
Lonner tells The Pier: “Wade had a giant tattoo across his chest that said ‘For The Kids’ & I freaked out because that was mine & Sherman’s motto in our last band. Anytime a magazine would ask for a bio that is all we would say, those three words. Needless to say, we hit it off with Wade in a very magical way.”
A few days later and Wade is now inviting Lonner & Sherman to go jam at Eric Wilson’s house. The first thing they played was this song called “Left for Dead” as the moment was captured on video and published as the very post to their new Instagram at @Spray_Allen. The song is also expected to be Track 1 on their debut album.
Lonnner explains: “The next day I sent Wilson a long text about how it had been a dream sequence getting to play with him. He said he hadn’t had that much fun in a long time and invited us out to the desert early next morning. Me and Sherman got our stuff and pulled up at his house at 7am. He already had all the music gear loaded (PA Subs and all) and we went out to the high desert to play to the spirits out there. Since that day we haven’t looked back. Various spots in the desert have been hot spots for us creatively and we try to go out as often as we can.”
Spray Allen was formed and they would go on to write 20 songs. They took those 20 songs to producer Paul Leary at Sonic Ranch Studio in Texas where Eric has a history with Leary having worked with him on the Sublime Self-Titled record back in 1996.
The album is expected to feature guest vocalist Angelnumber 8 on a song titled “Pretty Power.” Gabe McNair (No Doubt/Sublime) contributes background vocals, keys and trombone to a lot of songs while Stu Brooks of Dub Trio added some sauce to the record, including heavy production on a song titled “Heaven On My Shoulders.”
Watch: Spray Allen – “Stay Clean”
While the music video for “Stay Clean” includes cameo’s from Dalton Dern and Bam Margera, the biggest highlight of the video is seeing how happy and animated Eric Wilson is. Known throughout his years in Sublime as a stationary cigar blasting thunder maker, you can see Eric smiling and dancing with his bass as its said the group produced the entire music video themselves. In fact, they chose the song “Stay Clean” as their debut single because Wade had a cool idea for the video that the rest of the group wanted to bring to life.
No official word on when the album will drop, but this is the first taste to introduce you to the new music Eric Wilson is creating with new musicians and a new vocalist.
While the band plans to tour as much as they can, this wont interfere with any plans or commitments that Eric has to Sublime with Rome as I’m told we can expect new music from Sublime with Rome as they have also been working on a new record. Perhaps we’ll see Spray Allen on the bill for a future Sublime with Rome show or tour.
In the mean time enjoy enjoy Spray Allen and stay tuned for more details!
Article By: Mike Patti
Photo By: Anthony Duty
