A few months ago, the first session for “Nothing Means Anything” took place on the 30th anniversary of Todd Rundgren’s “A Wizard, A True Star”’s release. That record was many things; a triumph and success in many ways, but was a rather purposeful commercial disaster. The legend of that album has grown while it has shattered the impression created by his previous album, “Something/Anything?” (don’t go there… coincidence, I promise!) that Todd was a one-dimensional limp-wristed balladeer of cute pop songs. Even a closer listen of that album would have dispelled it but we’re talking big singles being bought up by teenyboppers, not the album-buying headphone dissectors. “Wizard…” is immense fun for me to listen to, despite the “commercial failure” aspect of it. Todd accomplished what he set out to do, and that was to tell people who he REALLY was – take it or leave it. I took the anniversary as a good omen, particularly in light of how unlike me my first record now seems. The boy who recorded “Rockstars” is long gone… which “Nothing Means Anything” will explain in its story and songs.
The world did change in a few ways since I started recording this album. For one, I had a kid. Jimmy Ether at Headphone Treats gave me a few months off before finishing this record to cope with my new life. As I recently told a Sparklefest audience – my life didn’t change that much; I used to end the day with vomit all over my shirt and I still do but now it’s someone else’s vomit. I really do smell like rotten milk all day thanks to little Paul “bathing” me every couple hours, and my days of excess (not that they were alcohol-fueled) really are behind me. Also, it took 37 years but SMiLE, the record that often gave direction to my whirling compass to find “Nothing Means Anything”’s demos in the summer of 2003, was finally released. You’ll rarely be able to tell, but sometimes a snippet of music from SMiLE’s sessions would be enough to send me into my music room for a marathon writing-while-recording session all day. I didn’t want to imitate the music – I wanted to make my own equivalent of the heartfelt, meandering and often dreamlike project of Brian’s that was deemed “inappropriate” and never released. One Summer night while Heather and myself were getting ready to go to bed, I walked through the room on the way to the shower while the instrumental “Bicycle Rider” theme from SMiLE (an eery harpsichord melody) played. In the shower an unrelated melody entered my head and grew louder and louder until I had to open my mouth and sing it. Once it came out, I felt better and had to keep singing it to maintain this euphoric feeling. Throwing on a towel, I ran out of the shower and into my music room where I hit “record” on my four-track and sang a snippet of this melody into the microphone. The next day I spent eight hours on the demo for “Feel This Way Again”, the song that my little melody had turned into. It definitely signified a new direction in the type of music I was writing and was a huge step up in the quality of demos I was doing on my own at home. It sounds not a bit like the piece of music that inspired it, but I never would have thought of it had the music not put me in the state of mind to create.
This past weekend, the final session for “Nothing Means Anything” took place as Brian Wilson brought the long-awaited SMiLE to Atlanta. On Saturday morning we (Jimmy Ether manning the controls with me behind the mic) recorded the a-capella intro to “Feel this way again” and then that night we actually took a break from recording to go witness SMiLE, coming back home covered with chill bumps and ready to finish the record. Some lead vocals were re-cut with a bit more magic in them, all of the backing vocals were recorded and even a couple of guitar parts that I’d forgotten. Heather even recorded her oboe part in “Fairytale”.
So yes! We’re finished. I admit that over the past few months I’ve run lower and lower on energy and didn’t think I’d be able to finish this record when the time came. With the weight of an unfinished record off of my back, I woke up this morning with more energy than I remember having… ever. Paul and I have had a good morning, with his 30 minutes of TV – a Steve episode of Blue’s Clues, which he laughed at – and we listened to SMiLE for his audio stimulation. Paul “aaaaaah!”d along with “Our Prayer” on key at one point, which both scared me and made me happy. The house is clean and laundry’s getting done. Predictably, I’m sitting here working on songs for the erm… NEXT record. Meanwhile in Atlanta, Jimmy Ether prepares to begin mixing “Nothing Means Anything” (along with the new record from his band, The Ether Family Presents…) and he should be finished in about three weeks – that’s a liberal estimate.
There are so many things on my plate right now, but I do have the peace of mind of knowing that the chapter of recording album #2 has come to a close and that the next chapter can begin.
