Description
The Graylands is the first full-length rock album by the American singer, songwriter, keyboardist, and arranger Rob Watson of Daniel Amos and The Swirling Eddies fame, Kickstarter-funded and independently released in October 2019. The album features a mix of music that was recorded in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s as well as new material. The tracks were recorded at various studios in California: 3-D Studios in Costa Mesa; Neverland in Los Alamitos; MindsEye Productions in Temple City; and The Aerie in Eagle Rock. Engineered by Doug Doyle (The Graylands, Something’s Going On Here, I Was There, I Need You Near Me), Dave Hackbarth (Pappy’s Garage, I Was There), William Pearson (additional on Pappy’s Garage), and Bill Baumgart (additional on Live Your Life). Transfers by Alex Drizos at Modern Man Productions in Los Alamitos. Mixed by Ken Riley at Rio Grande Studios in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Written, produced, and arranged by Rob Watson for Azure Flame Music. (For Tim, Doug, Gene and Tom.)
Alternately psychedelic, thoughtful, dance-able, funny, and strange.
Featuring the following musicians: Rob Watson on vocals and keyboards, as well as guitar on Pappy’s Garage and Something’s Going On Here. Guitars provided by Wayne Brasel (Live Your Life, I Was There, I Need You Near Me, Locked Away), Jerry Chamberlain (Changing Me Now), Greg Flesch (In The Future, Something’s Going On Here), Randy Ray Mitchell (If I Were King), Frank Choate (Pappy’s Garage), and Ken Riley (Changing Me Now). Bass provided by Tim Chandler (Pappy’s Garage, I Was There) and Marty Diekmeyer (Changing Me Now). Drums provided by David Raven (Pappy’s Garage, I Was There), Dave Spurr (Something’s Going On Here), and Terl Bryant (Live Your Life). Trumpet and Flugelhorn provided by Knox Summerour (Pappy’s Garage, If I Were King). Violin provided by Ingrid Chun (If I Were King).
> Apple Music (https://music.apple.com/us/album/the-graylands/1793880922)
CD tracklist:
01. Live Your Life – 4:59
02. In The Future – 2:46
03. The Graylands – 5:00
04. Pappy’s Garage – 3:49
05. I Was There – 5:38
06. Something’s Going On Here – 3:40
07. Changing Me Now – 4:40
08. I Need You Near Me – 3:47
09. Locked Away – 3:54
10. If I Were King – 3:32
Note: The CD is housed in a digisleeve. Rob Watson also released a bonus disc (for the higher Kickstarter levels) simply entitled The GrayLands Bonus Disk (subtitled Body and Soul in Hebrew), pressed in 250 copies. Available at Bandcamp: https://robwatson777.bandcamp.com/
> Dw Dunphy: The Graylands is being “completed” as an album, but I don’t know that it was ever intended as an album. It was on your 45 record (as Body and Soul). Was there ever a plan to have Body and Soul be a full album effort then?
Rob Watson: I always intended to complete an album, but I wanted to do it differently. I wanted to release a set of seven inch singles starting with that first single, releasing two songs every couple of months until five or six were finished. Around the time I recorded that single, I started touring with DA in earnest. I was also working as a studio musician as well as touring with Petra, the Sheila Walsh Band, Tonio K., and The Surfaris, and got crazy busy, so I shelved that idea and started to record a more conventional album in between tours. I was spending a lot of time with Tim Chandler and David Raven (Swirling Eddies drummer and noted session man), on and off the road, I played them my demos and they liked them. One day, Tim called me and said that David and he had been working on bass and drums for those songs, and would I like to go to Neverland Studios (run by The Choir’s Derri Daugherty) and record them. I’m eternally grateful to those guys for doing that.
> Dw Dunphy: I’m assuming the original recordings were done analog. What was it like bringing them over to a DAW, which I assume you’ve been using for quite a few years now. What struck you about your process now versus then?
Rob Watson: All of them except one were recorded on tape. «The Graylands» and «Something’s Going On Here» were recorded on Doug Doyle’s Ampex one-inch 8 track that he bought from I think Warner Brothers Records, the same machine that DA’s Vox Humana was recorded on. Most of the rest were recorded on two inch 24 track machines: Doug’s MCI, which was a converted two inch 16 track. The rest of DA and the Eddies of that period were recorded on that machine, as well as Knowledge and Innocence. Some were recorded at Neverland when it was in Los Alamitos, some when Neverland was at Derri’s dad’s church, and some at Bill Pearson’s Mind’s Eye studio in Temple City.
The newer version of «Graylands» and «Wall Around My Heart» were recorded at Goldmine Studios in Ventura by the amazing Jeff Cowan. The tapes sat neglected in various basements and garages for all these years, and when I went to work for DreamWorks on Veggie Tales in the House I had enough money to spend on baking the tapes (to re-adhere the oxides to the tape film, which separate over time) and transferring them to digital. I love the process of studio recording. It provides a creative structure, planning and pre-production, and deadlines that bring the best out of a team of musicians and engineers. When I sit in my composing room in my pajamas noodling away forever on one song, things tend to drag on. The editing and mixing is fantastic with digital: total recall, multiple mixes to choose from, unlimited signal processing… but if you’re not careful, you can get bogged down in “option overload” – too many choices, too many ways to complete a process. But Kickstarter has provided me another deadline, I have to finish this project!
> Dw Dunphy: You’re also revisiting some tracks featuring folks who are no longer with us. That alone had to be an emotional experience…
Rob Watson: Very, very, very much so. I can’t overstate what losing both Doug Doyle and Tim Chandler has done. Everything they touched on this project turned to gold. Their friendship and brotherhood was so deep and crucial, I knew Doug in junior high, and Tim was my room mate most often on tour. Every time I hear what they did on this project I’m rather moved emotionally.
[Excerpt from a Rob Watson interview by Dw Dunphy, May 13, 2019, at MusicTAP.com]
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.