Daryl Hall revealed that he and John Oates have seven basic tracks in the can for their upcoming studio set. Although a constant presence on the concert circuit, Hall & Oates haven't recorded a full album together since their 2006 holiday collection, Home For Christmas. The pair's last all-original set was 2003's Do It For Love.
During a chat with Ultimate Classic Rock, Daryl Hall spoke about the new album's producer, Jett Rebel, whom he met last year when Hall & Oates performed at the North Sea Jazz Festival in Rotterdam, Holland. Hall explained, “We played there last summer, and he literally just came up to me and said, 'Hey, man, I’m a giant fan of yours,' and we just started talking. He gave me a CD of himself, and I went back and went online and listened to what he was doing, and I went, 'This guy is really good.' I started contacting him and we had email conversations.”
He went on to say: “One thing led to another, and then I went over in January to the Netherlands at his studio and I threw some things together with him. I brought him over here to my studio in upstate New York, and back and forth like that. The guy is really, really good. He’s one of the best people I’ve ever worked with.”
Daryl Hall said that he's been finding direction in his older material, explaining, “I think of my own catalog and my own songs, and that can go a lot of different directions. But there’s a certain feeling that I look at when I think of both Hall & Oates music, and that’s what I’ve been channeling. I’ve brought John (Oates) into the project, and John just gave me a chorus and I sent it to Jett and he sent me back stuff. There’s a lot of back and forth things going on. Even though we’re all isolated, it’s very much moving along. I think I have about seven tracks cut now. No vocals or anything like that, but really, really strong tracks.”
John Oates told us he's grateful that Daryl Hall took the lead in pushing Hall & Oates back to being a recording entity once again: “Daryl's jump-starting this whole project. He's been reaching out, looking for something. His TV show's been on hiatus for a while, and really, it's just great that he's making the effort to move forward on this. I've got to, kind of, disengage, my brain from all the other things I'm doing and put the Hall & Oates hat on, which I'm in the process of doing.”
Hall & Oates are next scheduled to perform with Squeeze on May 29th at L.A.'s Hollywood Bowl.