Daily Inspiration: Meet The Freedom Affair

Today we’d like to introduce you to The Freedom Affair.

Hi The Freedom Affair, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
We started in 2017 when I was moving back to KC from Oakland. I connected with Chris Hazelton, and we quickly bonded over the vision of a soul band fronted by three female singers. We never thought it’d come together as quickly and easily as it did, but before too long, all nine of us were getting together writing what would be the tracks for our first album, Freedom is Love. We had some success with licensing some songs from that album to some big TV shows and ad campaigns: an Apple iWatch ad, a Netflix Series, Bel-Air, and a few other spots. When things started to pick up again after COVID lockdown, we started writing our second album inspired by a lot of the soul music from around Memphis in the late 60s and early 70s. That self-titled second album came out this last May.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It has always been difficult keeping a 9 person band on track. We all have our own lives, jobs, gigs, families, etc… that demand our time outside the band, so just finding time for all of us to get together is a challenge. COVID didn’t help. Our first album was released in September of 2020, so we were never able to tour to support that music. Luckily, record sales around that time skyrocketed, so we did fairly well just selling our LP around the world. The band is definitely a labor of love for all of us. Going on 8 years, we all just love the music we are able to make together, and we’re constantly growing musically as we understand how we can play together, compliment each other musically, and evolve orchestrating this 9-piece band as its own instrument.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
There aren’t a lot of large bands these days. Even when bands perform or tour with multiple musicians, the main creative forces behind the band are typically limited to just a couple of voices. They’ll have a couple people write and record an album, and they’ll contract out musicians to play live or come in for a session for their album. We embrace the creativity of all 9 members, and we encourage everyone to take part in writing our music. Our songs get better as everyone puts their stamp on them. Everyone is getting publishing credit for what they bring to each song. Doing this lets us all have ownership in the group. We all have skin in the game. That’s important to keeping everyone invested and engaged in moving forward.

What’s next?
We’re going to keep making music that we love. We’re really loving being in the studio together dreaming up new concepts and a few surprises. There will undoubtedly be more releases coming in the not too distant future.

Pricing:

• LPs sell for $30
• T-Shirts sell for $30
• CDs sell for $20

Contact Info:

• Website: https://thefreedomaffair.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thefreedomaffair/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thefreedomaffair
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@thefreedomaffair