{"id":231447,"date":"2025-09-16T13:29:20","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T13:29:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/231447\/"},"modified":"2025-09-16T13:29:20","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T13:29:20","slug":"new-york-city-musician-tomas-doncker-drops-new-album-hard-is-hard-after-move-to-uk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/231447\/","title":{"rendered":"New York City musician Tom\u00e1s Doncker drops new album \u2018Hard is Hard\u2019 after move to UK"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"tomas\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Tom\u00e1s Doncker and The True Groove All-Stars have released a new album \u201cHard is Hard.\u201d<\/p>\n

Photos courtesy of Tom\u00e1s Doncker<\/p>\n

A Brooklyn musician is revitalizing his career across the pond with a brand new album.\n<\/p>\n

Tom\u00e1s Doncker, the mastermind behind the NYC-based record label True Groove Records, has released a new album, \u201cHard is Hard,\u201d a concept album with elements of soul, blues, funk, rock and jazz thrown in.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am a sucker for a concept album. I love the idea of contemporary music being able to not be just a collection of songs or singles, and having a theme or a thread that ties them together,\u201d Doncker told amNewYork. \u201cOver the course of the last two and a half years, these songs have emerged.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Tom\u00e1s<\/a>Tom\u00e1s Doncker<\/p>\n

Doncker describes the album as having two different vibes, with the A side taking a bolder approach and the B side taking a slower, more sensual approach, with both still being socially conscious in nature. The name \u201cHard is Hard\u201d comes from the struggles that come with existing in our current time period.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no utopia, there is no perfect place. It just is a hard time right now for everybody, no one\u2019s got it easy. Well, there are certain people in a certain low percentage point, I\u2019m saying the 1% of people said they got it pretty easy. But the rest of us literally don\u2019t know, and that\u2019s globally,\u201d said Doncker. \u201cI\u2019m not in the business of giving up or quitting. I\u2019m not in the business of allowing some person, some individual, or some corporation [to have] lustful greed and inhumanity towards their fellow man to stop me from living my life and expressing myself as an artist.\u201d<\/p>\n

Doncker noted a couple of highlights to \u201cHard is Hard\u201d are \u201cPost Modern Jive\u2026Again,\u201d which is a sequel to his previous song \u201cPost Modern Jive\u201d from Doncker\u2019s album \u201cBlack Magnolia Project,\u201d and his cover of \u201cAce of Spades,\u201d which he recorded in collaboration with St Germain, a collective of visual artists, to create two music videos: a full-length version and a shorter version to share on social media.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s been great to be able to collaborate with visual artists here. Nowadays, one does not necessarily have to complete a four-minute music video to promote the work. Due to the ever-dwindling attention span of humanity, shorter is better,\u201d said Doncker. \u201cSo we do have the full-length video for \u2018Ace of Spades\u2019 because it merited that, it\u2019s just a classic song. But then there\u2019s other little snippets from pretty much almost the whole album.\u201d<\/p>\n

The album was co-produced and mixed by James Dellatacoma and mastered by Michael Fossenkemper. It also features Frank Benbini and Adriano Rossetti-Bonell (UB40), The Specials\u2019 dynamic horn sections, and musicians from the True Groove label.<\/p>\n

The release of the album comes on the heels of Doncker\u2019s move to London, where he has divided his time between there and Brooklyn for the past few years.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not the first time I\u2019ve lived abroad. I lived in Japan for four years. I lived in the Netherlands for about a year previously. I am not the first forward-thinking Black American artist to come to the UK and be welcomed warmly,\u201d said Doncker. \u201cPeople over here love music. They love soulful music. They love bluesy, funky, soulful, sweaty music. They absolutely get it, they understand the history of it, the legacy of it, the gravitas of it. I don\u2019t have to explain who I am or what I\u2019m doing, which is so pleasant.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Tom\u00e1s<\/a>Tom\u00e1s DonckerPhoto courtesy of Tom\u00e1s Doncker<\/p>\n

To kick off the album, Doncker is currently on tour in the UK in support of the band Fun Lovin\u2019 Criminals.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s exciting. I\u2019m just so, so grateful. Gratitude is my complete attitude. I really am so grateful, this one in particular seems to have been a pathway created for this work to be shared with a vast amount of people across the globe,\u201d said Doncker. \u201cMy profound amount of gratitude and thanks to the Fun Lovin\u2019 Criminals: Frank Benbini, Fast Leiser, and Naim Cortazzi, and to Jonathan Read and The Specials.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHard is Hard\u201d can be streamed online wherever you stream music and is available on vinyl. You can follow Doncker @tomasdonckerofficial<\/a> on Instagram.<\/p>\n

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