American hard rock newcomers CLASSLESS ACT have been pretty tight-lipped about when they’ll be letting us hear their new music, despite having told us that they’ve had their debut album ready since at least last year! As such, the drop of the new single, “This Is for You,” on March 25th, 2022, was a bit of a surprise, especially considering it features a guitar solo from none other than Justin Hawkins of THE DARKNESS fame!
These youngsters caught my eye (or perhaps ear) entirely by accident during a Zoom interview mix-up that led to our own deeply delightful and funny interview with vocalist Derek Day. So, having gone to look up their then-only single, “Give it to Me,” I was blown away by the classic hard rock sound, yet originality of content. I waited many, many months to hear a new song from them, with the only opportunities to hear anything else – mostly covers – on their Instagram feed from their live sets around Los Angeles. On one sleepless night, however, I did manage to catch a few of them them streaming and further chatted with the band a little, to find myself completely charmed by what lovely people they are, making it only more devastating when their next single was a Christmas song! Okay, it was a great Christmas cover, but still, so many months spent waiting for another song made that feel very, very cheeky.
That puts us at today, however, where we can now say that CLASSLESS ACT now have two (!) non-holiday singles under their belt. “This is for You” opens on guitar lines before Derek comes in, using perhaps a more similar singing style to their first single, yet with some of the depth he showed in their Christmas carol. The guitar parts are smooth and rockin’, though I could use a bit more bass in the overall sound, and the drums keep things lively without relying on boring disco drums – bravo! Plus, as mentioned, there’s a solo done by Justin Hawkins, which is just generally delightful (as expected), even if there’s no high-pitched vocals to accompany it. There’s still a strong GUNS ‘N’ ROSES flavor to their sound, though I wouldn’t call them a knock-off by any means, as their sound is very much their own. GNR is just the closest general style to what these guys pull off.
Oh also, of course there’s a music video! What was interesting was that the video opens with “Part 2” on a black screen, which immediately made me stop to think, “… wait, what was part 1?” A man is admitted into the hospital with a head injury, coming in and out of consciousness as he is put to bed and examined by the nurses. Derek then pops out of the bed next to him and the band start rocking out in the hospital room as two men come to question and take away the injured man before his head wound has been tended to. The video also includes guitarist Griffin Tucker almost losing his guitar to illness! There are full subtitles to help tease what’s going on as well, which I won’t spoil – just go check it out! It’s a pretty bizarre video, but in a weird and fun way.
Alas, us Europeans won’t be able to catch these guys live anytime soon, but here’s hoping their debut album will be a success and bring them to our shores sooner rather than later! I still can’t wait to hear more.
