Fantasy Monologue

Big news is that the Fantasy Monologue CDs have arrived from the duplicator, nicely shrink-wrapped, and I’m getting them all sent to where then need to go in order for them to be available for sale. Soon, I will be able to publish some links here, once they are ready.

Meanwhile, I’ve been listening to the recording, after having a break from it for a few weeks, and am feeling a bit like it’s my favorite album. There, I said it. That voice on there sounds just like the voice that sings in my head. Those lyrics seem like the writer really understands me, from the inside out. And the musicians on there play with such warmth and mastery and thoughtfulness, they somehow feel like they are my personal friends. I mean, they are, and of course I wrote and sang the songs, so this all kind of makes sense, in my case, but I hope everyone has the same reaction. Especially you!

What I’m struggling with lately is filling in requests by various databases for marketing information. Like, one question is “What three other artists is your music like?”

It’s a little tough to answer this because we’re simply trying to create honest music that feels authentic and serves the songs well, rather than trying to sound like someone else, or make it conform to a “genre,” which is really just a marketing construct to facilitate sales in record stores. And it’s a little weird to say that I’m like so-and-so, because everyone else is a towering giant, and I am lowly worm (wallow wallow).

But I understand that such associations are helpful to people looking for music to listen to, so they need to be considered, especially for emerging artists. So, what three are we most like?

One is easy: Tom Waits, especially his early work (Closing Time, Small Change, The Heart of Saturday Night, etc.). And what contemporary songwriter doesn’t want to be like Tom Waits?

After him, it gets harder.

A lot of artist names were bantered about while we were building soundscapes for these songs: Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Bert Jansch, Alison Krauss, Fleetwood Mac, Fritz Kreisler, and others. But our resulting sound isn’t much like any of them, mostly—at least, not for very long. Maybe a guitar part or violin solo here and there, or the vibe of one song here might be like one obscure song way over there, but it’s pretty difficult to say, “If you liked their album, you’re sure to like ours.”

Someone recently said my songwriting and vocals bring Leonard Cohen to mind. That was interesting to me, as I’d never listened to him at all, so I did some research. He’s an amazing talent, and sure, I would hop on that bandwagon, if I could catch it. It’s nice to hear another bass singer. That said, I find his approach to lyrics (not to mention orchestration) somewhat unfathomable. He goes to some scary places that I would run away from in terror, if they ever occurred to me. Not that I don’t appreciate his work. But man, that cat is far out!

Two other voices have been suggested to me as being somehow similar to mine are Johnny Cash and Jim Morrison. I’m a great admirer of both of their music, but also find it to be utterly unfathomable. I like it, but I can’t get my head around it, and can’t imagine creating anything like anything they ever did.

All of us sing fairly low, though. Maybe that’s the tie that binds?

Anyhow, I think one of the strengths of Fantasy Monologue is the eclectic breath of colors it explores. Overall, it mostly stays within the wide realm of acoustic influenced alternative rock. Music that could conceivably fit inside that vague marketing characterization potentially includes a fairly wide expanse, from Johnny Cash to Pink Floyd to whatever, but that’s my story and I’m sticking to it, even if it is only about sixty-seven percent true.

I feel like I’m being unhelpful to the databases. But the art of this recording feels well served, so I’m not losing much sleep over copping out with the genre or associations.