Orange County Choppers stalwarts Paul Teutul Sr., his youngest son Mikey Teutul, and Alex Franco have teamed up with the sometimes-controversial Italian-German hard rock band Frei.Wild for Brotherhood, a new album. Performing under the name Brüder4Brothers, the bilingual record will be released on Rookies & Kings, a label co-founded by Frei.Wild lead singer/guitarist Philipp Burger. Hamburg-based Soulfood Music Distribution will be handling the record with an August 16 release date.
Frei.Wild, which formed in 2001, met up with the American Chopper reality TV stars in 2018 at the Harley In The Snow event in Ridnaun, Italy. Plans for a Brüder4Brothers album resulted from the dinner together.
Based in a Brixen, a predominately German-speaking town just south of the Italian/Austrian border, Frei.Wild (“Outlaws” in German) sing in German. Frei.Wild has a classic rock sound, with influences ranging from punk rock to American country. Supporting the four vocalists are Jonas Notdurfter (guitar), Jochen “Zegga” Gargitter (bass), and Christian “Föhre” Forer (drums), with Burger also contributing guitar.
The first single from Brotherhood, “Freundschaft Brotherhood [Friends Brotherhood]”, featuring alternating verses in German and English. Burger’s raspy German contrasts with the smoother voices of the Teutuls and Franco. Here, a bit of the American country influence makes itself apparent, though within a context of classic rock and anthemic rock. Although written, recorded, and the video created before the COVID-19 crisis, the lyrics clairvoyantly capture the zeitgeist the world is experiencing.
On July 3, the second single from Brotherhood is set to be released. “Burn Fire Burn for Me” will have an animated video, dut to COVID-19 travel and production restrictions. To give you an idea of what rest of Brotherhood will sound like, we present the sometimes politically incorrect song titles:
- A Man and His Honor
- Do You See My Devil
- Don’t Get Better Than This
- Pussy or a Man
- Smell the Gasoline
- Steel Horse
- The True Feeling of Freedom
- You, Me and the Night
Brotherhood will be available as a download, on CD ($15), and as a single vinyl LP in gatefold sleeve ($25). All can be pre-ordered at the Brüder4Brothers website.