First, let me say this: Per Ardua is my best work. Not just my favorite because it’s the newest, but all bullshit aside, it’s what’s for dinner. It’s a personal best; it’s the debut of my newly-improved singing voice; it’s heavier and more focused than anything I’ve ever done. I have a very hard time plugging my own music (I’ll shout about my friends’ music all day) so just in case you were wondering, I am goddamned proud of Per Ardua.

I think that being from southern Alabama stunted my musical growth somewhat. There, I said it. Montgomery isn’t a big entertainment town (there are a lot of high school kids and people over 45, but seemingly nothing in between); people stay at home and watch TV. It’s hard to find other musicians – much less challenging ones – to play with. I found a good group of guys to be in my band and we had a great time playing blues covers and doing Zeppeliny type stuff. And I don’t mean the challenging material; I’m talking about the first record, which was very easy to figure out if you can play blues. I was never asked to nor encouraged to venture beyond that. The people at our shows figured that Cloverdale Blues-Rock was as good as it got, and most of the other bands either played the exact stuff that we played or meandering jam band stuff. I mean, thank god I have roots but it would be years before I realized that there was a world beyond funky blues-rock.

When I hit the age of 20, I decided to take some drastic steps; I was sick to death of 12-bar chord progressions. I started playing chord progressions and riffs that sounded edgy, out-there. Mature. New. “Wow, that sounds Beatlesy.” “It does? Kick ass!” It turned out that my idea of futuristic was actually outdated by about 30 years. I always acknowledged that I had a long way to go before my sound wouldn’t be called retro. Each CD I’ve recorded has leapt ahead by increments of 5 years or more – “Drivin’ South” (a cassette tape released in 1996) was 1966, all the way – Yardbirds playing blues. Hell, Bluesbreakers. Superhype’s 1998 EP (which I thought was very new and on-the-edge at the time) was pretty clearly 1968-style Led Zeppelin and Byrds-influenced. My solo debut “Rockstars & Superheroes” in 2003 (recorded mostly in 2001) followed my alt-country phase and was a comically-intended homage to the glam-rock days of 1972. Then there was “Nothing Means Anything” in 2005 which was a conscious effort to leave powerpop behind, and sort of accidentally embraced it. That record is my White Album. It has a little of everything and was the moment I realized that I needed to really try harder to find myself. I was trying too hard to fit in and not trying hard enough to push myself… or something. I still don’t know. I felt at the time like it was a huge step forward, and really it was, for me. It had what every other CD I’d released was lacking, in many ways.

Then the shit really hit the fan and I decided to make an EP instead of a huge album – “Per Ardua”. I focused all of my energy into five songs rather than seventeen. Compared to “Drivin’ South” with a gulf of only ten years, it was a personal triumph. It doesn’t sound like the same guy and probably isn’t. I challenged myself at every turn to improve not only on what I thought were weaknesses but on every bit of feedback from reviewers. Yes! I read reviews, even the bad ones. Eventually. Some of the bad ones are really funny, but I’ve found that most reviewers are trying to be helpful. I have to be true to myself, but I do, I really do have a long way to go. I don’t bend to the will of anyone else – I don’t have to. But I do enjoy this game of expressing myself and knowing that with every CD I release, I grow. Everybody helps me to do that.

Which brings me to my main point: I have been dancing and clapping. The new EP is about halfway finished and for the first time ever, when I listen to the playback, I have to jump up and down, clap my hands and yell “f__ yeah! F___ YEAH!” at the end of each song. You can bang your head to it, you can dance to it, and best of all… you can do the nasty to it. Seriously. So far all of the songs are entirely distorted bass, drums and percussion. No electric guitars (so far) and (so far) it rocks way, way, way harder than anything I’ve done before. For the first time ever, I feel the excitement of having NO IDEA what I’m doing! I don’t know what I’m going to record until it happens, and as a result the song arrangements are pretty hilarious. I don’t know what the songs are going to be about, and I highly doubt that there’s going to be a concept to this CD (for the first time since Superhype) aside from “mostly bass and drums”. I guess my only goal is to not let preconceptions hold me back from doing anything and everything I want to do. Even if I fail miserably, I’ll take a huge step forward.

And I just saw the artwork for the CD cover. Kat Lamp did an amazing job – it can’t be described except with four words: hamster, space battle, owl. It will all make sense later.

I’m sorry if this got seriously long-winded but I felt like I had to say something; I never “studied” the Beatles, I never wanted to be powerpop; it’s only in retrospect that I discover that I’ve been doing something overtly retro. Given my beginnings, I have to constantly reinvent myself in order to move forward; this means that I have definite phases. This requires you to listen with fresh ears – I’ll be happy if you understand where I’ve come from but I’ll be thrilled if you don’t think of me the same way you did five years ago. Perhaps I’ve finally spoken up about this because if you’re looking for sunny pop, this next EP will not have it. It’s rock, plain and simple. I’m trying to have as much fun as possible challenging myself as a musician, and having as much fun as possible rocking way harder than you’ve heard me rock (unless you’ve heard me play with other people, or been to a live show when we were feeling particularly randy).

In short, the usual – another phase has ended, a new one has begun, I’m really excited about what I’m recording and I’m still really happy about the last CD… which is still new.

Sorry, just had to get that out there.