File under Funk / Soul / Jazz. Highly versatile Wanaka-based guitarist and composer Henry Charles has just released his groove-filled debut album. In a nod to the music and movie culture that inspire him, he has reasonably titled it ‘Funk Royale’. With nearly two decades of experience performing in those genres along with rock’n’roll, Charles spent the last two years in the meticulous process of recording and self-producing this independent, all-originals album project.

A structural engineer by trade and covers band guitarist by pastime, Henry Charles (aka Henry Smeaton) says he realised at a point that neither were what he wanted on his tombstone. With the band on hiatus two years ago he made the bold decision to flip that equation, and further explore his creative passion for funk and retro-soul culture.

The result is ‘Funk Royale’, an album of 13 predominantly instrumental tracks, each of which paint vivid soundscapes through compelling funk, soul and jazz compositions. Funkzilla, The Bronte Disco Strut, Motown Showdown and Funk Royale, the track names alone ensure you have an idea of what sort of listening lies ahead – all modelled around his guitar playing and otherwise largely created in the box. Remarkably Charles’ recording experience before this album was limited to Garageband, which he’s been using since his late teens.

“I spent many hours recording guitar-driven music through a Line 6 Pod XT, and in more recent years have done a couple of recording sessions with Alpine Funk Line, a local band. (l left the technical side of this to others though.) During the Covid lockdown me and a few band mates discovered the cloud-based DAW BandLab, as a way to make music together remotely.

“I’ve also been working a bit in Logic Pro which is amazing, especially for MIDI and arranging samples, but I actually find the guitar and bass recording process a lot more streamlined and efficient in BandLab – which is impressive for a free online DAW!”

His studio is actually a corner of the living room, and much of his recording is done with headphones, enabling him to record at night time while the kids sleep.

“My wife Yaeh’s helped (and inspired me) a lot. She helped set up a sweet recording nook with guitars hanging up above the desk and amp rigged up beneath. I can get recording in less than a minute!

“The recording chain is just guitar (usually my Fender Strat), plugged into a Marshall JVM 215 combo tube amp, which has a DI lead going into an interface, and then into my laptop. The Marshall JVM allows me to silent record with headphones – it’s amazing how accessible recording is these days!”

For all the myriad of tonality on the album he used just two guitars for recording – an American Deluxe Fender Strat (single coils) for most, and a Washburn HB32DM hollow body with heavy gauge strings for the jazzier fingerstyle pieces. The only pedal in-between guitars and the cloud-based DAW is a Fulltone Clyde Wah, with all other effects (mostly limited to reverb, compression, and occasional delay) applied in the DAW.

“I really wanted to reign in effect pedals for this album to stick to a more retro ‘70s vibe. All the guitar overdriven gain / tones were achieved via the Marshall tube amp. For the basslines I used a Squier Precision 5-string bass, which my friend lent me…

“I tend to play the bass more like a finger-style guitar (especially for the faster riffs) which makes it harder to get a good thumpy tone, so there was a lot of palm muting until I started using a trick inspired from Laura Lee (Khruangbin), and put a piece of kitchen sponge beneath the strings at the bridge to give it that constant palm muted R&B tone! The bass is plugged straight into the audio interface.” 

Challenging the norm, ‘Funk Royale’ is predominantly instrumental, and heavily inspired by ‘70s funk and Motown as well as retro heist and suspense cinema. The keys and string sections Charles mostly recorded with MIDI, while the drums and brass sections were heavily cut from a ‘Fresh as Funk’ live samples pack that he conveniently won in a Digit Music song remixing competition in 2023.

“In a lot of cases, cutting and massaging those horn parts in the DAW took a lot longer than any of the recorded guitar or bass parts! For some songs I collaborated with other musicians. Beep Beep and FunkZilla were collaboratively recorded without any samples. Chillin’ With You has a friend, Dominic Stayne, playing double bass and Nice Shacket has another friend, Helen Carter, on organs.”

Successfully aiming to expand on and pay homage to the colossal genre of funk, listeners can expect timeless bass grooves, funky guitar rhythms and soaring leads – interwoven with vintage-style funk drums, brass instrumentation and those rich Hammond organ tones. With that combination and his laptop Henry Charles very capably delivers a freshly feel-good, retro-soul theme throughout ‘Funk Royale’.