When it comes to getting the party started, look no further than Pure Energy, who after nearly four decades is back together putting together new music including their most recent single “Midnight Magic.”

Pure Energy is a trio consisting of brothers Curtis (lead guitar/vocals) and Raymond Hudson (bass guitar), and lead vocalist Lisa Stevens-Crowder, who have been laying down driving funky dance grooves since the mid-1970s.

“Midnight Magic” was written by Lisa and Curtis in the 1980s, but it wasn’t until now that it had been unearthed, polished up and put out for listeners to hear. Once again the band is showing off their thick, funky R&B style with driving bass lines and smooth vocals for a whole new generation. But make no mistake: this sound is very much the Pure Energy of old, yet refined.

“We kind of redid the song and brought in my son Eric Hudson who is a producer for lots of people- “Flashing Lights” is one of his productions with Kanye West,” Curtis said. “John Legend, so many other groups. He came in and put the modern twist to an ‘80s song and it actually became magical like the title.”

Raymond added, “We have quite a few songs we didn’t have a chance to record in the early ‘80s and so forth. We started listening to them and these songs are really good. When you go back to the ‘80s, these grooves were really good. We just decided, let’s take another shot to put these songs out.”

Curtis explained that they wanted to keep the integrity of their sound from the early days, saying they saw acts like Lizzo and Beyonce going back to the type of style Pure Energy was putting out.

“We’ve got tons of these kinds of grooves,” Curtis said. “We didn’t want to change our sound. People like it. This is Pure Energy.

The group put out their first album Pure Energy in 1980, with single “Party On” reaching number seven on the Billboard Dance Charts. They also released singles between 1982 to 1984 including the hit “Love Games”, which was later covered by the British group Five Star in 1985.

The Hudsons and Stevens-Crowder wrote and produced for other artists like Hot Streak and Jean Carne in the 1980s. Stevens-Crowder and Curtis Hudson even wrote the Madonna sung classic “Holiday” in 1983, with Curtis playing guitar and Ray on bass. The song was originally intended to be for their group, but after not gaining approval from producers, they shopped it around and it ended up with Madonna. It turned out to be one of the pop icon’s biggest hits that helped get her career started.

“Holiday is actually a Pure Energy sound,” Curtis said. “It ended up being with Madonna’s vocals but it kind of brought a new sound to the music industry in the ‘80s.”

He added, “We knew the song was good.”

That year Curtis Hudson also wrote and produced “Body Work” for Hot Streak- a tune that appeared on the multi-platinum soundtrack for the movie “Breakin’”. The song became a hit again 22 years later when it was sampled by Missy Elliott on “Lose Control.”

In recent years Curtis Hudson co-wrote “Remember Us” for John Legend, who won a Grammy in 2021 for best R&B artist. Hudson’s son, grammy award winning producer Eric Hudson, has been working with the group, showing the multi-generational aspect of the group as he is the biological son of Curtis and Stevens-Crowder who were once married. Curtis and Eric wrote a pair of songs on the new album by the Isley Brothers titled Make Me Say It Again Girl, as well.

Pure Energy is working on recording a number of tracks and have plans to put together a full album in the near future. He said they have a big following in Europe, notably France, and  are trying to built a whole new audience. “Midnight Magic” is just the tip of the iceberg for Pure Energy’s future.

“There is a lot of music coming from Pure Energy,” Raymond said. “This is the start of it.”

Raymond said they are trying to stay faithful to the Pure Energy sound they have created over the years. It is a beloved sound to their fans, complete with infectious grooves and instrumental tracks.

“It has always been serious,” Raymond said. “Whenever we come together with music we all have the same purpose and we work hard at it. We really do.”

Raymond said that Lisa is a fantastic vocalist, as she is able to layer her sound. The vocals are all her on “Midnight Magic.” The Hudsons are big fans of bands like Earth Wind and Fire and Brothers Johnson, and they wanted to keep this aspect of playing real music with their instruments alive.

Curtis said the group, as it stems from the ‘70s, is used to perfecting their craft musically. They are very instrumental based, and when a song was eight minutes long, that meant they were playing all eight minutes. This was a time where there wasn’t sampling or Pro Tools and they had to learn to produce, write and arrange tracks.

“We had to learn how to do it all,” Curtis said. “So once you get that, you never lose it.”

This is the first project the band has done in 39 years, and the Hudson brothers commented on how it was unbelievable to even think about. Curtis said once they got back into the studio it was like old times and everything fell in place. They had worked together on a different projects, but getting back together as Pure Energy is something special. They agreed that Pure Energy is all about dancing and having a good time, and they are excited to be able to keep putting out their sound for people to enjoy.

“It’s a fun time and we are really happy to get back together and actually start doing this,” Raymond said. “From the first day it was like ‘wow this feels good.’ It took us back to the ‘80s. Hopefully we can continue to do what we’re doing and what we love to do.”

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