At 11:59pm Central Time on New Year's Eve, I hit the "upload" button to put my newest album online. It arrived a few seconds after 2010 began. The album is called GLASS BREAK DEMENTIA, and I like it.
I started with a core of unfinished songs that wouldn't leave me alone, dating back as far as 5 years. While beating a few of these into reasonable shape, other new songs started showing up. All told, I ended up with 11 songs and 3 brief instrumentals to link them.
1 About Face 3:25
2 The 5th Dementia 4:11
3 Queen For A Day 2:19
4 37 0:33
5 Afraid Of Love Songs 4:41
6 So Where Were The Spiders? 2:18
7 Thanksgiving 2:56
8 41 0:36
9 Ms. Papathanassiou 2:19
10 Break 2:53
11 Water From A Bourbon Glass 2:47
12 32 0:58
13 Hip Bones 2:51
14 Sweetest Day 5:06
Several of my albums have a similar shape -- intro, songs, intermission, songs, outro. When I was planning this one, I wanted to see how a different shape might work, so GLASS BREAK DEMENTIA is Act 1, intermission, Act 2, intermission, Act 3, intermission, denouement. It's also the shortest album I've released, at just over 38 minutes. I wanted to see about putting out something at a more old-fashioned album length and scope than I've usually done. It would fit neatly on vinyl as a 12" LP or a double EP -- maybe someday...
This is my first original album recorded using my 16-track Fostex MR-16 digital home studio, after breaking it in on my holiday album HIPPO HOLLANDAISE in 2008. Gearwise, for those of you who care, I also relied on:
mics -
MXL 990 as the main vocal mic
Groove Tubes GT55
AudioTechnica Pro 4L
effects -
dbx 286A (compression on all voices and most instruments)
Boss GT-3
Ibanez Smash Box
Ibanez Tube Screamer
Ibanez Delay/Echo
Danelectro Tuna Melt Tremolo
instruments - same cast I've relied upon for years remain:
Takamine EG-10C acoustic guitar
Electra X260 Invicta as the main electric
Fender Squier Tele
Fender Squier Precision bass
Pearl Rhythm Traveler drumkit
and of course the infamous Realistic Moog Concertmate MG-1 synthesizer I bought in high school.
I wrote a lot of the songs on my Washburn Montgomery J-6 hollowbody and Line 6 amp, but I still haven't figured out how to make either one sound how I like on recordings...
As usual, I sang, wrote and played everything, did all the engineering, mastering, artwork, giggling, screaming, crying, and sighing of relief.
You can listen to it in several ways through http://www.dolphchaney.com/ --
* look at the very top of the page for the Flash player and hit the "play" button; it will keep playing while you browse through the site
* go to the "Music" section of the site to download or stream individual tracks, while reading lyrics and facts about each
* click the link on the main page or on the "Albums" page to download the zip file (cover art, mp3 files, lyrics) here
Soon, I'll also have the album available from iTunes and many other online services, thanks to my partners at CD Baby.
It was really fun -- hope you enjoy the results. Let me know what you think, won't you?
Watch the "News" section at dolphchaney.com or my Facebook fan page over the next few days -- I'll be blogging about each track in order, with lyrics and background info guaranteed either to enhance or ruin the experience for you permanently. And in 2010, I expect to play these songs in front of people from time to time and keep on writing new ones. Thanks for reading and listening, as ever.
Peace,
Dolph