Aloe Blacc will release a brand new single, ‘Green Lights’, on September 11 (Epic); the follow-up to his international crossover hit, ‘I Need A Dollar’. Watch the video below. It is taken from Blacc’s second album, ‘Good Things’, which went Top 10 in the UK and received significant critical acclaim worldwide.
Following sell-out headline dates at London’s Somerset House, Scala and Jazz Café – plus show-stealing sets at festivals such as Glastonbury – a new UK tour has also just been confirmed. Tickets for the nationwide trek, featuring a huge London date at Hammersmith Apollo (December 15), are on sale on Friday July 15: see ww.aloeblacc.co.uk for details.
The song came to being, somewhat appropriately, in a car. “I experienced a smooth ride through Hollywood with no red lights,” Aloe recalls. “I had musicians and a producer waiting for me in a recording studio, so I was incredibly lucky, and started writing lyrics as we passed through each green light. For me, the song is about more than that: it signifies having a stroke of good fortune, and meeting no restrictions as you make your way through the day.”
Whilst “some days are just full of green lights”, as he puts it, Aloe had to earn his own change in luck. He famously wrote ‘I Need A Dollar’ following a redundancy from his then-job, during which he still gigged furiously as an MC, searching for a break. ‘Dollar’ began to pick up extensive attention following its use on the HBO show, ‘How to Make It in America’, before impacting across Europe and the US.
5 August Big Chill Festival
20/21 August V Fesival
3 December BIRMINGHAM HMV Institute
4 December LEEDS o2 Academy
5 December NOTTINGHAM Rock City
7 December MANCHESTER Academy
8 December NEWCASTLE o2 Academy
9 December SHEFFIELD Plug11 December LIVERPOOL o2 Academy
12 December GLASGOW ABC
14 December BRISTOL Academy
15 December LONDON Hammersmith Apollo
16 December BRIGHTON Dome
