Ida Mae Returns With Their Best Album to Date
The husband-and-wife rock duo’s ‘Thunder Above You’ is out this week.
Ida Mae’s new album Thunder Above You opens with a groovy percussion loop that sets a swinging tone for not only the opening track and first single “My Whispers Are Wildfire,” but for the entire record.
“It’s a Moog drum machine that Ethan programmed,” vocalist-guitarist Chris Turpin says of the loop, speaking with the Scene by phone from the U.K. where he is visiting family. Ethan is multi-instrumentalist-producer Ethan Johns, who handled drums and percussion and assisted with the mix on Thunder Above You, the third studio album by the husband-and-wife rock duo of Turpin and vocalist-keyboardist Stephanie Jean Ward. Working with Johns and bassist Nick Pini, the same rhythm section that accompanied them on their first two records, the duo recorded the album quickly — 12 songs in a week.
“Steph was seven months pregnant at the time, so we knew we had to get a record in the bag,” Turpin explains.
“Everyone we spoke to said, ‘You have to get this record done before you have a baby,’” Stephanie Jean adds with a laugh. “I’d say it was probably the least prepared we’ve been for the studio just because of the timing of things.”With assistance from engineer Fraser Latimer, they recorded the album in May 2022 after transforming a mansion owned by a childhood friend in Turpin’s hometown of Norwich into a makeshift studio.
“We had just rolled out of tour, and we literally built the studio in a day,” Turpin says. “Everyone lived in the house, cooked all our own food. We set up a live room, and we cut two songs a day. And that’s how we made the record. It was just magical.” Thunder Above You indeed has an undeniable magic, which is derived in part from the way the album was made — very few takes and very little overdubbing.
“We wanted this to be much more a moment in time,” Turpin says. “When you perform live like that with open microphones — there were no booths, and there was no separation between the drum mics and the vocal mics — it just creates a really big conversation in the room if you’ve got the right players. And I think what comes across is how in the pocket and how much groove there is, you know, because all the musicians are really listening to one another as every note is being played. I think the record has such an atmosphere because of that energy.”
While Thunder Above You has all the elements that have been hallmarks of Ida Mae’s distinctive sound on their previous recordings — clever and poetic wordplay, memorable musical hooks, monster guitar riffs, accomplished musicianship and their unique, soulful vocal blend — the album represents a ripening and broadening of that captivating sound. The record is funkier and swings more than earlier studio releases Chasing Lights and Click Click Domino.
“I think it was just the reality that we’d been out playing Click Click Domino songs in front of a lot of people, and I think we just got a little groovier and a little heavier,” Turpin says. “I think we both sort of pushed ourselves to play a little more, you know, because we’ve always been hidden by the songs a little bit. But for this record, we wanted to really play a little more. Steph, I think, really shows what she can do.”
Stephanie Jean steps further into the spotlight on the new record, both as a keyboardist and vocalist. While she doesn’t credit her pregnancy for that, she does acknowledge it affected her voice.
“We found that with the expanded belly, it definitely gave me a richer tone,” she says, laughing.
In many ways, Thunder Above You is a reflection of their life on the road and the approximately 500 shows they’ve performed across America since moving to Nashville from the U.K. in 2019, opening tours for Willie Nelson, Greta Van Fleet and Marcus King, among others. Tracks like “American Cars” and “Feel the World Turning” are clearly informed by their travels.
“When we’ve headed out the last five years across the U.S., me and Steph in the car, and the guitar in the backseat and you know the radio playing, you kind of feel a bit like a drifter, a kind of wayfaring stranger moving through all these strange moments,” Turpin says. “And you kind of feel like a shadow passing through these towns.
“And it does something to you, and I’m not entirely sure what it is, and I’m not sure I’ll ever work it out. But I know it’s a little addictive, and you become more magnetized and drawn to it. The sense of moving through other people’s lives and being sort of privy to little moments of their existence, feels like a very spiritual, holy thing to be able to do.”
Original post: Nashville Scene