THE MISSIONARY POSITION TO RELEASE ‘CONSEQUENCES’ AND TEAM WITH SEATTLE FILMMAKER
by Ruben Mosqueda
The Missionary Position is a rock band based out of Seattle. Magnetic singer/guitarist Jeff Angell fronts the band and his band mates Benjamin Anderson (key bass, keyboards), Gregor Lothian (saxophone), and Michael Alex (drums) round out the genre-defying four-piece. The Missionary Position incorporates elements of jazz, blues, rock, and pop into their music and have also been known to throw their unique spin on a cover or two in their set. The Missionary Position are on the verge of releasing their sophomore album, Consequences, in March. Consequences is the band’s highly anticipated follow-up to their 2009 debut, Diamonds in a Dead Sky. The Missionary Position has toured relentlessly since the release of Diamonds in a Dead Sky, and they had to force themselves off the road to record the new album. The Missionary Position will be playing a special record release show at Dante’s on March 4th. “Dante’s has been really good to us – they’ve been very supportive of us throughout the years. Portland is an exciting city – it reminds me of Seattle years ago before the bubble burst. Portland’s got that kind of energy,” says Angell. In addition to new music, The Missionary Position will have a DVD of live footage shot by Seattle filmmaker Jamie Chamberlin. The DVD is tentatively slated for release this summer and will be the first release of 2012 under Chamberlin’s imprint Black Dahlia Films. “We’re using a clip from the DVD to promote Consequences. We haven’t finalized the packaging and we’d like to add more material to the DVD,” Angell.
Chamberlain recalls, “I crossed paths with The Missionary Position a number of times over the last year and a half. There’s a song of theirs that really stuck out to me – it’s called ‘So Close.’ It’s a very cool song. In passing I mentioned that we should do a video together. They said, ‘Yeah that sounds great.’” Chamberlin goes on to say, “My initial thought was to shoot my interpretation of the song ‘So Close.’ I kept seeing them perform; about a year later in September of 2011 I found out that they were playing at the Feedback Lounge here in Seattle.” The wheels started turning in Chamberlin’s head and he suggested to the band that they should film the performance. Time was of the essence, however, as the gig was less than two weeks from that day. “The band decided to sprinkle songs off the new record and songs off the last record in a six-song set. There are three new songs and three old songs. It worked very well,” says Chamberlin. When asked about the new album, Angell said, “Consequences is the culmination of playing 200 shows behind the last album. It allowed us to make music organically; we made music the way that we wanted make it. We haven’t used a big name recording studio, or a big recording budget, or taken out loans to make our records. I’m proud of that.” Angell had this to say about the music on the new album: “I wouldn’t say there’s a particular direction we chose – it’s us, The Missionary Position. There’s some jazz, blues, soul, and rock ‘n’ roll – it’s what people expect from us.” When asked about his role in The Missionary Position, Angell said, “I actually wanted to play guitar. I’ve always wanted to be Keith Richards – I love The Rolling Stones. I never found my Mick Jagger, so I’m singing too.”