This song (Sugar Junkie) is one of the first ones all five of us truly collaborated on to write, arrange and perform. Most of the songs before were ideas maybe one or two members had come up with, then brought to the band to flesh out...Sugar Junkie has been a long time coming, going thru several versions...but we sat down in a friend's basement in Portland, OR while we had some downtime on tour and knocked it out in a couple of hours. The groove and flow of it was perfect, and we are really happy with the way it came out in the studio. - Slappy (guitars and vocals) You could search every live performance venue across the country and scour the internet’s most reliable, avant-garde music blogs, and you’d still be hard pressed to find another band like the Georgia-grown, California-living group Cherry Royale. And that distinction goes far beyond the group’s dedication to creating true, modern funk music. Comprised of Alvetta Newby-Jones on vocals, Bryan “Slappy” Goodman on guitar and vocals, Matt Jennings on keyboard, Solomon Wright on bass and Richard Jones on drums, Cherry Royale is a sonic blend of various musical backgrounds tied together by a mutual, life-long love of music. In addition to years of cultivating their passion and craft, each member of the group brings to the table previous experience with widely respected, groundbreaking indie groups. With that experience also comes the courage to create boldly, as they forge through new ground in a musical landscape that hasn’t gotten enough shine of late; knowing without a doubt that as a team, Cherry Royale is dedicated to the same goal: to craft an experience through their music. “Funk is about the chemistry between not only the people playing the music, but the people listening as well,” points out Slappy. “Once you feel that chemistry, it’s absolutely undeniable. You can’t react against it.” Originally part of a three-part collective studio team called The Axis, Cherry Royale emerged from those early sessions as the vessel through which this new psychedelic funk & soul music was to be given life. The final addition of MJ on keys in early 2011 completed the sound, and CR began to tour heavily across the U.S. from the sultry south to Pacific northwest, releasing early studio bootlegs and receiving critical acclaim for their high-energy live shows. After spending more than a year bringing their new brand of funk to light, finding more than willing participants in their unique chemistry experiment at every turn, Cherry Royale took some time off from the road in late 2012 to give their growing fan base a way to bring the experience home. The group is currently putting the finishing touches on their debut EP “Say What?!,” due out February 2013 on Dirty Bomb Records. The EP was recorded both in Atlanta and Oakland over a six month period from April to November 2012 at Dirty Bomb Studios (East & West Labs). The group took this time to refine and expand upon songs that had been brought forth during the previous year and a half of touring, as well as new material that various members had been working on collectively or solo in the studio.