Chicago has announced the release of its 38th studio album, Born For This Moment, on July 15th. The band is now on the road with special guest Brian Wilson, who along with fellow Beach Boys Al Jardine and Blondie Chaplin, will be opening for the band for most of the summer.
The band's three co-founders — keyboardist Robert Lamm, trombonist James Pankow, and trumpeter Lee Loughnane — spoke about the new album in the official announcement:
Robert Lamm: “I hope that, 55 years from now, listeners will actually feel something about our music and our lyrics. I mean, we’re all human. We all go through some variation of the same pain and joy at some point in our lives, and there’s a commonality to that. I hope listeners in the future will actually get all those feelings while listening to our music.”
Lee Loughnane: “One of the big reasons this album works so well is that when you put it on and play it, you hear something you’re not quite expecting to hear and it immediately pulls you in musically and emotionally.”
James Pankow: “The very nature of these new tracks makes them very performable, and I’m looking forward to playing some fresh material onstage.”
With Chicago now only featuring three original members — we asked Robert Lamm if the band could possibly carry on without any founding members: “Starting with the death with Terry Kath, we're no strangers to updating the lineup. A lot of lip service was given to the concept of 'the music is more important than who's playing it in our band.' As it's turned out, it's apparently true — but also the guys who are maybe a generation younger who have come in to fill in are better players than we were when we started. I think that there is — among the guys who would be left, who are in the band — I think there is kind of a feeling that instead of just being Chicago, we're sort of, the 'Chicago little symphony,' if you will. Y'know, (laughs) so, players come in and players go out. I think that's a possibility.”
Chicago & Brian Wilson perform on Thursday (June 9th) in Los Angeles at The Forum.