There’s some tedium, especially in the new methods of overdubbing and going back and fixing things, and as time went by, we would tinker and fiddle and change this and that because we had the luxury to do so.”īefore COVID-19 sidelined the music industry, Dramarama had a few shows planned, weekend runs in major cities to promote “Color TV,” but with the accessibility of the digital age, fans of the band don’t always need a live show to be convinced to pick up a copy. “He let us sneak in at night and on weekends to use this wonderful facility, and it took longer than most records. They have a history there, and the guy who owns it and is my co-producer has been one of the great helps in our recording. “With the way we recorded this record, we were able to use one of the best studios in the world, The Village in West L.A., where everybody from Elton John to Cher to Barbra Streisand to Steely Dan recorded. “I’m very proud of the songs and the way the record turned out, for sure, but it took a long time to make it sound right,” he told The Ties That Bind Us. From the bluesy shuffle of “Swamp Song” to the muscular “What’s Your Sign?” to the languid and contemplative “You, You, You,” Easdale and his bandmates pay homage to their ’80s power-pop origins while blazing bold new trails. The album punches out of the gate with the whine of feedback giving way to the jubilant “Beneath the Zenith,” a song that proves Dramarama was a template for modern alt-rock outfits like Japandroids, and it doesn’t let up. At the same time, it’s a choice that’s brought him a great deal of peace in recent years, and led to the recent release of “Color TV,” a rock ‘n’ roll record that turns on Easdale’s “fiercest and most moving compositions,” according to a recent interview with him in the publication American Songwriter. Like so many others, Easdale views sobriety as a personal lifestyle choice, not a cause. I’m not going to walk around with the big ‘S’ for sober on my chest.’” John Easdale: A return to form on 'Color TV' “But it’s been a number of years since my last relapse, when I went out on a weekend and spent close to a week in jail, and when I came back, I said, ‘You know what? This is fucked up. “It wasn’t like a light went on and I said, ‘From this day forward, I’m never going to do it again!’ Because I had said that in the past, and it still took a bunch of times, and a lot of hiccups along the way - a lot of setbacks, a lot of relapses, a lot of mistakes, and every time I came back, I felt a lot of shame and sorrow and anger at myself. “I couldn’t live a happy life, and I realized I couldn’t be myself anymore if I still did that,” he said. The lightbulb came on when he realized that the substances that once offered comfort and succor had become a handicap. He was miserable, he said, and made everyone around him equally so. And over the years, I saw people with some really decent time go back out, and that shame would kill them - the drugs did it, or they did it themselves, and I got tired of losing friends.”Įasdale - who recently released “Color TV,” the first new Dramarama album in 15 years - got off of hard drugs in the 1990s, and he’s never regretted it. “I got sick and tired of going back and starting over and the shame I felt that was involved in that. “Counting days felt like marking off X’s on a calendar, like I was waiting for my prison sentence to end,” Easdale said. And when it overtook him, the guilt and shame of surrendering those chunks of clean time to start over only served as a reminder of just how tenuous recovery can be. But for himself, he told The Ties That Bind Us recently, they eventually became an albatross.Įasdale, like a great many other recovering addicts and alcoholics, found that the darkness of his disease was a creeping thing, always on his heels. He doesn’t fault those individuals, nor does he discourage them from picking them up. Often, the collection of chips or keytags marking accumulated periods of sobriety is a point of pride for those who have emerged from the darkness of addiction and alcoholism. It’s about the journey, not the destination. There’s a saying in recovery circles that John Easdale, the founder and singing, songwriting force behind the power-pop ensemble Dramarama, clings to all the harder the older he gets:
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |