NEW ALBUM OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT:
OK, this is it folks. I know, I know, I can't believe it either. It's been almost exactly one year in the making. Don't ask me how or why, just know that I wanted to give you the highest end result my abilities and fantasies could offer up at this point in my creative evolution. It's called Catnip Dynamite. It's my latest solo effort and it is scheduled for an official release date of March 19th, 2008. It will once again be coming out on the wonderful Pony Canyon label in Japan. Now for those of you who refuse to play the ridiculously high import price on Amazon, and I can hardly blame you, I'm going to need your help here: Due to circumstances I won't bore you with, I find myself with no home/label for this record either here in the USA, Canada, Europe, Australia, etc. So any label suggestions, ideas, contacts you might have on this front would be greatly appreciated. The sooner I get an avenue of release for this new album domestically and abroad, the quicker and more affordable it comes to you.
I am so incredibly happy to be sharing this new collection of material with all of you at this time. It is another snapshot lyrically of where my head and heart have been throughout the past year juxtaposed against many musical ideas who's genesis spans the last 20 years or so. There are song ideas on this new album who's roots go back literally as far as 1985. I distinctly remember as "Van Hagar" had just formed and I was particularly disturbed by this. Anyway, strap yourselves in for another roller coaster ride of sonic and emotional ups and downs and distraction in the greatest sense of the word. If I can aurally assist you in time-traveling out of your own heads for 3-5 minutes and then gently place you back into your day to day driver's seat with a little ecstasy still buzzing around in your heart center, then my mission has been accomplished. Thanks again friends for all of your loyalty and for listening.
RECENT ACTIVITIES/SESSION WORK/ETC:
Just as this new record was coming to completion last fall I was inundated with some of the most amazing recording session offers my career has yet seen. Within the last three months I have not only been asked to do keyboard work on the latest offerings from Australian pop sensation Katie Michaelson and childhood heroes Cheap Trick but spent over six weeks recording with Morrissey and his incredible band for what will hopefully become his latest solo effort later this year. My long time producer friends, Howard Willing, who I've known since our very first days together when he assisted on the Imperial Drag album, and Julian Raymond, former A&R and staff production wizard at Capitol, invited me along to help decorate Cheap Trick's latest offering. Due out sometime later this year on their own personal label. Top playing and top songs, folks! You won't be disappointed. .
Producer Jerry Finn and I have had a long fun filled history together in Punk Pop heaven with group's like Blink 182 and found ourselves both being invited back for our second Morrissey album. I think fans will be pleasantly surprised by this new solo offering. It was all tracked live which added a great punk, garage, DIY urgency to the tracks. I am so used to recording keyboards in the more traditional overdub scenario that being asked to invent parts "on the fly" and track with the band while Morrissey sang live was a very refreshing and challenging experience. Some of my favorite songs to date form these two bands who's work I have been a fan of for so many years. What an honor!
I am currently in Japan not only doing promotional set up with radio and press for the upcoming release of Catnip Dynamite but also to assist the Roland Corp. in showcasing their new products at the Japanese NAMM show 2008. I am playing two open to the public concerts in conjunction with this event that should be real fun. A special "shout out" to those amazing Japanese fans who have really stuck by me over the years since I first visited with Jellyfish and Imperial Drag back in the early 1990s. The impassioned reception I have received over there in the last two years after not making any kind of appearance for over ten has caught me completely by surprise! I look forward to a time when I can come shake your hands and thank all of the rest of you personally around the world who continue to welcome my solo efforts. Keep your collective fingers crossed!
RECENT INTERVIEWS:
http://tinyurl.com/2xlbg9 www.bounce.com/interview/article.php/3059 www.roland.co.jp/synth/why/page_RM0.html www.myspace.com/intenseinterviews
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