Tag: Reed Recording Company

Changing Course — The Steve Taylor Three Ponders New Beginnings and Closed Chapters on “Temporary Heart” Album

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Bryan Frink, Steve Taylor, and Carey Weaver of The Steve Taylor Three. Photo courtesy of Steve Taylor

The passage of time weighs heavily on Steve Taylor’s mind.

The Metro Detroit singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist ponders new beginnings and closed chapters on The Steve Taylor Three’s new album, Temporary Heart.

“The songs were all written in the same period, so there were certain themes that were on my mind—certainly aging,” Taylor said. “I’m 51 now, so turning 50 was a big deal from an age standpoint.”

Alongside bandmates Bryan Frink (bass, guitars, keys, vocals) and Carey Weaver (drums, percussion, vocals), Taylor explores changing family dynamics, fluctuating relationships, and childhood memories on the trio’s fifth release.

“A good friend of mine that I grew up with got married very young and then got divorced,” Taylor said. “That’s what the song, ‘Anymore,’ is about and love comes with age. I keep saying that the topics that are most on my mind right now are aging and the weather.”

On Temporary Heart, The Steve Taylor Three features a dozen heartfelt tracks bursting with rich harmonies, ruminative lyrics, and vibrant Midwest Americana instrumentation.

While the songs reflect on the fleeting nature of change, the album’s universal themes and infectious soundscapes remain deeply embedded in our hearts and minds.

To learn more, I spoke with Taylor about Temporary Heart ahead of the band’s November 29 album release show.

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Turn the Page – Fay Burns Revisits Her Love of Indie Pop-Rock on New ‘Full Circle’ EP

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Fay Burns starts a new chapter on “Full Circle.” Photo – Loren Johnson, Sunfire Studios

Fay Burns is ready to turn the page.

That turn starts a new chapter for the Royal Oak, Michigan singer-songwriter and guitarist, who’s embracing a different sound and releasing her debut EP, Full Circle.

“I’ve taken the approach these days that if I’m not making music that I love and it isn’t just 100 percent me, then I don’t want to bother,” Burns said.

“I don’t want to make music that sounds like somebody else, and I don’t want to make music that’s trying to sound like somebody else. I feel like this is the first time I’ve made something of that nature where it says, ‘This is me.’”

Burns’ authenticity permeates all four tracks on Full Circle, which features a turbocharged indie-pop-rock sound in place of the previous folk, bluegrass, and Americana territory she explored as half of the former duo Escaping Pavement.

“This time, it’s all about finding the sound, making the introduction, and putting it out there in the world as a starting point,” she said. “It’s the start of something new.”

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Back to Basics – Hollow Head Explores Raw Alt-Rock Sound on New Self-Titled Album

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Hollow Head’s Elliott Miller, Ian Gerrard, John Baldwin, and Jim Adame. Photo – Paul Gerrard

Last August, Hollow Head’s Jim Adame and Elliott Miller took an expeditious approach to writing and recording their sophomore release.

The two bandmates from the Denver quartet created a makeshift studio at an Airbnb in Fairplay, Colorado to quickly capture the nine tracks for Hollow Head over six days.

“We didn’t go into this album with a theme in mind. The main thing that we wanted to do was write and record the majority of the songs together at once,” said Adame, the band’s vocalist-guitarist, about their new album.

“They all weren’t written at the same time, but most of them were written in a shorter period of time compared to A Spark of Madness. That’s more of a common theme with our songs.”

What resulted are nine tracks filled with honest, thoughtful, and vulnerable lyrics about processing internal struggles and sharing them with the outside world.

“That’s also why we decided to have the album be self-titled,” Adame said. “There wasn’t a lot of separation this time between Elliott and me—it was a lot more collaborative.”

Miller, Hollow Head’s vocalist-drummer, agreed: “It feels like our first true record. The other one was a bunch of different stuff pieced together.”

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Surge Protector – Hollow Head Faces Emotional Vampires on ‘I Can See You’ Single

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Hollow Head tackles toxic relationships on “I Can See You.” Photo – Paul Gerrard

Surging with adrenaline and emotion, Hollow Head boldly confronts emotional vampires on “I Can See You.”

That fearless act prompts the Denver indie-rock quartet to drive a stake in problematic relationships on their grungy new single.

“When I was writing lyrics for it, I didn’t go into it intentionally thinking this was what this song was gonna be about. I started writing and I think something on my mind at the time was just about emotional vampires,” said Jim Adame, the band’s vocalist-guitarist, who wrote the track last summer.

“We were going through [things] with specific friends at that time, and I’ve always had specific friends that have kinda been in that realm and also relationships. A lot of that was in my mind subconsciously.”

Backed by impulsive electric guitar, energetic bass and thunderous drums, Adame’s honest thoughts quickly rise to the surface as he sings, “All your words are parasitic / You just talk and watch me bleed / I bet you wanted me to be / Another version of what you see / No, no.”

“It touches on a little bit of guilt where you understand someone is trying hard to be a part of your life, and I was going through that a lot at the time with friends and in romantic situations, too,” he said.

“You have this one person trying very hard to be important to you, and you can very easily let that happen, but you also have to recognize this person is just gonna bring you down.”

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Double Vision – Hollow Head Unites Creative Forces on ‘A Spark of Madness’ Album

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Hollow Head’s Elliott Miller and Jim Adame reassess the valleys of the past and explore the peaks of the future on “A Spark of Madness.” Photo – Josiah Walker

Last year, Jim Adame and Elliott Miller opted to double their musical odds.

The longtime friends and collaborators pooled their talent, ingenuity and resources to form Hollow Head, a new Denver-based indie-folk duo.

“Elliott and I started releasing music independently and closely around each other. He started writing songs a year or two before I did, and when I moved out to Colorado initially, that’s when I started getting back into writing music and releasing it,” said Adame, Hollow Head’s vocalist-guitarist who hails from Midland, Michigan.

“I released my EP, and Elliott released his EP. On my EP, Elliott did all the drum work and the lead guitar, and he was already a pretty big part of that project. At a certain point, we realized our songs had a lot in common, and the subject matter was similar as well. Since we had already enjoyed collaborating, we decided to take the plunge and make it a duo project.”

Together, their creative Hollow Head forces produced A Spark of Madness, an emotive debut album immersed in ethereal soundscapes, earnest lyrics, ear-catching harmonies and expansive instrumentation.

“We put words on paper, and then a lot of that came from subconscious thoughts, and we found out what it meant later,” said Miller, Hollow Head’s vocalist-guitarist-drummer who also grew up in Midland and met Adame in 2015.

Each track provides a contemplative, out-of-body experience that allows listeners to deeply reflect on internal struggles, old relationships and life lessons. It’s the ideal sonic companion for a solo Rocky Mountain road trip to reassess the valleys of the past and explore the peaks of the future.

“We revisited the songs, so they’re all more cohesive and share the two of us,” Adame said. “That’s how they all play out. And then, two of the songs, ‘Gasoline’ and ‘January,’ are the ones we wrote while we were in the middle of forming Hollow Head.”

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Hit-Worthy Parade – Matthew de Heus Unveils Hidden Gems on ‘Greatest Misses’ Album

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Matthew de Heus shares his multi-genre gems on “Greatest Misses.” Photo – Avram Golden

Matthew de Heus prefers to acknowledge life’s under-the-radar moments.

The Bay City Americana singer-songwriter and bassist thoughtfully unveils those hidden milestones on his new hit-worthy anthology, Greatest Misses, out today.

“I had planned on having two releases. One was gonna be a new EP, but then I was gonna do what I initially called a Greatest Hits album, and it was almost self-deprecating,” said de Heus.

“I wanted to take some of the songs we had already done and put them on one album, so that people who wanted those could get them. I don’t reprint any of the old albums, they’re just gone … because that way if I ever do get famous, they’ll be worth a fortune.”

With Greatest Misses, de Heus assembles a priceless 15-track collection of multi-genre gems, including old favorites from prior releases and three new songs. Filled with melodic hooks, memorable lyrics and clever instrumentation, the album glides through country, power pop, jazz, blues and indie rock terrain.

“Traditionally, in pop music, and in the early days of rock and roll, you might put the same song on more than one album. That was part of it. Though I did want to throw those three new ones up front, I tried to still sequence it like an album, so it was a decent listen,” de Heus said.

“In way, this is almost like a second version of Silk Purses. Andy Reed called that my Goodbye Yellow Brick Road or White Album in the fact that every song is a different genre. Making the songs individually is one thing, but mixing and mastering them so they can sit next to each other on an album is another.”

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Musical Shapeshifter – Andy Reed Undergoes Personal Transformation on Introspective ‘Relay, Vol. 2’ EP

Andy Reed flexes his pop-rock songwriting muscle on “Relay, Vol. 2.”

Andy Reed quickly morphs from one musical role to another.

The Bay City pop-rock singer-songwriter seamlessly shifts from acclaimed producer to multi-instrumental collaborator to introspective artist on his latest soaring solo EP, Relay Vol. 2. It’s his second release in a growing series of Relay EPs dedicated to highly-personal, contemplative songs written amidst other projects.

“The songs themselves are a little bit different than I typically write; I am from the power pop school of The Beatles and The Beach Boys. Over the years, I’ve worked with so many artists like Michael Robertson, J.D. Dominowski and Amy Petty, and this is more on singer-songwriter side, and I love that kind of music,” Reed said.

“My goal with this was to be a little more Dawes and be a little more Jason Isbell, but in the background my McCartney-isms are still going to come through, and that kind of stuff too because that’s who I am. I tried to think of it a little bit more from the storyteller’s perspective, and I just wanted to flex that muscle to see if I could do it.”

Reed strongly flexes his songwriting muscle on five poignant tracks about long-lost friends, newfound love, sci-fi journeys, family struggles and childhood nostalgia. He wrote and recorded the reflective Relay, Vol. 2 earlier this year in his home-based Reed Recording Company studio while producing projects for other Michigan artists and working on an upcoming album for The Legal Matters.

“They were all kind of recent personal things that I observed, and it’s definitely my most personal record. I wanted to write new songs because I’ve already handed over the songs for this newest Legal Matters record that we’re gonna do. It’s all the stuff I love about music in a little five-song thing,” said Reed, who played all the instruments on Relay, Vol. 2.

Answering the Call for Ennio Floyd

Reed beautifully opens Relay, Vol. 2 with a shocked response to unexpectedly hearing from a former love interest. “Answer the Call” blends drifting electric guitars, dreamy acoustic strums and soft drums as Reed reflects, “Build the perfect version of a life/Sometimes I can get in the way/Makes it harder each day/No looking back to try to make it right/We’re all better off in the end/Don’t even try to pretend/Seeing all that you took from me/Won’t make it better now/Wonder why you’d think of me at all/I won’t answer the call.”

“I have a buddy who recently went through a separation, and we were sitting together, and his ex called him, and so he saw the number flashing, and said, ‘Oh man, I wonder what that could be for?’ All these emotions just went through his head in like five seconds. What could this be? I was like, ‘Well, we’ve all felt that before.’ Someone calls you that you haven’t talked to in years. Did somebody die? Do they miss me? What is this all about? Don’t they remember they were a jerk to me?” Reed said.

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Echoes – Mid-Michigan Artists Reimagine 23 Tom Petty Classics for Double Tribute Album

Twenty-three Mid-Michigan artists pay homage to Tom Petty on the new double tribute album, “Echoes.”

Eighteen months ago, Andy Reed and JD Dominowski heard a distant “echo” in the sprawling fields of Mid-Michigan.

That “echo” eagerly beckoned the Bay City singer-songwriters to pay homage to the late Tom Petty, who passed away in October 2017, and his musical legacy. The two friends quickly answered the call – a double tribute album of local artists reimagining Petty hits, fan favorites and deep cuts.

“We’re re-singing his songs, and we’re an echo of his music now. That’s all he has now are echoes of his music. It’s us carrying the torch a little bit and saying here’s what Tom Petty means to us. Here’s an echo of what he gave us, and we’re translating it in our own way,” said Reed, who produced, recorded, engineered and mixed the project at Reed Recording Company.

Last week, Reed, Dominowski and 21 other Michigan artists dropped their compelling tribute project, Echoes: Remembering the Music of Tom Petty, via all streaming platforms. The album also doubles as a fundraiser for All Music is Power (AMP), a Bay City nonprofit that provides live music for K-12 special needs students in the Bay-Arenac Intermediate School District.

“We thought, ‘Well, let’s make this for a good cause,’ and I started this nonprofit with Donny Brown, who’s also on the record, and I don’t play the live stuff anymore, but Donny still does, and he goes to different special education centers and plays a live concert for them,” Reed said.

“It’s basically music for all the right reasons. This is not something that we want to make money on ourselves. We just want this to be making music for another good thing.”

A Refugee Who Learns to Fly

JD Dominowski provides a countrified rendition of “Refugee” on “Echoes.”

Along with his Michigan music compadres, Reed beautifully interprets a kaleidoscope of Petty catalog “echoes” throughout the 23-track project. The first response includes Dominowski’s striking Americana rendition of the 1979 Damn the Torpedoes classic, “Refugee,” which exquisitely blends vibrant acoustic strums, vivid piano, piercing electric guitar, thumping bass and intermittent tambourine strikes.

Dominowski’s countrified Springsteen-like vocals breathe new life into one of Petty’s most iconic Heartbreaker tracks as he sings, “Somewhere, somehow, somebody/Must have kicked you around some/Who knows, maybe you were kidnapped/Tied up, taken away, and held for ransom.”

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Into the Mystic – Amy Petty Explores Wondrous Musical Realm on ‘The Darkness of Birds’

Amy Petty goes deep into the subconscious on her latest album, “The Darkness of Birds.”

Amy Petty knows how to venture deep into the mystic.

That mystical plunge occurs in a refreshing musical dreamscape known as “The Darkness of Birds.”

For Petty’s newest album and first in nearly a decade, the Saginaw folk rock singer-songwriter dives headfirst into a wondrous musical realm that exists between day and night. It’s the vivid, haunting place where dreams mimic real life, but quickly dissipate once the sun rises.

“I thought I knew what it was going to be when the songs first started coming. I didn’t necessarily sit down to write an album. I was inspired by an idea and then wrote a song. Eventually, they all came together, and I didn’t know why. In hindsight, I feel like it was more of looking at who people are and how they get to where they are,” said Petty, who dropped her new album today.

“It’s more like an observation of the real side of people, and that’s a very broad thing from murder ballads to contemplating how we fit into this vast universe, and we fall all across the spectrum every single day. It feels like a complete thought instead of just one idea that I decided to investigate at length. It just feels like lots of aspects of the same person.”

Petty eloquently explores those different sides throughout her magical 11-track observation. In a sense, she serves as an oracle predicting which scenarios or paths will best guide people toward their destiny. The glorious opener, “The Dreams That Are Waiting for Us,” urges people to follow their instincts, realize their potential and overcome obstacles to fulfill their lifelong dreams.

Deep synths, bright guitars and dramatic drum taps nicely echo Petty’s larger-than-life vocals – “In the sky there’s a lullaby/And you cannot hear it until you close your eyes/These are the dreams that are waiting for us/When you sleep there’s a melody/It will play in you the way it plays in me/These are the dreams that are waiting for us.”

“The first one was based on words that my daughter said to me. She’s just the coolest kid, and she inspired me like crazy. I love where the song came from,” Petty said. “I don’t write a lot of optimistic songs, not that there’s a lot of optimism in that song, but it just feels very uplifting to me in some way. I love the instrumentation, and it’s kind of rocking on some weird level.”

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