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Posts Tagged ‘alternative rock’

You can know better and still lean closer.

My new album, A Little More, is about the appetite for connection that experience never quite cures. We learn to manage on our own, choose our words, keep our expectations reasonable. Then someone makes us laugh, and wanting very little no longer feels like enough.

These eight songs begin with a wink. There’s a man hearing more encouragement from his doctor than she probably intended, and another whose good judgment isn’t much help with a woman’s knee against his. Beneath the humor are the quieter admissions: wanting someone to stay, finding a reason to call, discovering how good it feels to be known.

The music is guitar-forward, with hints of art rock and close harmonies that occasionally take an unexpected turn. There’s room for the words—and for what the people singing them can’t quite say.

As the album unfolds, affection takes on the weight of memory. What do we keep of someone who is no longer beside us? What do we hope they keep of us? The humor stays, even when the answers grow difficult. Sometimes laughter and missing someone arrive together.

A Little More makes room for imperfect people who still want to be wanted—and who hope, when their name comes up, that someone might smile.

Listen to A Little More on Bandcamp, available now and coming soon to all streaming platforms.

Have a listen. I hope you find someone you recognize.

Bill

Listen on Soundcloud:

Bill Leyden · A Little More

Bill Leyden · A Little More

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A good line can get you into trouble. Sometimes that’s the attraction.

My new album, Away with Words, lives in those conversations where we have a little more at stake than we’re letting on. We’re trying to impress somebody. Trying to be understood. Trying to say “you were right” without spending another five years getting to it.

These eight songs follow people who can still surprise themselves—and each other. A little charm unsettles a comfortable life. Someone hears a familiar laugh and turns before remembering why he shouldn’t. A woman gets dressed for an evening out, and the man beside her remembers that being worth the trouble requires a little trouble of his own.

I’m interested in that space between knowing someone well and assuming we know everything. There’s still room for a misread signal, an overdue admission, or a look across the table that makes finishing a sentence seem unnecessary.

The music has an appetite of its own: guitar-forward alternative/art rock, winding bass lines, close harmonies, and grooves that leave room for a little mischief. Sometimes the guitar picks up where the singer runs out of words. By “Now You’re Talking,” a deep shuffle and a searing lead have helped turn a discussion about dinner into a question of breakfast on the way home.

There’s hurt here, and affection that has survived a few dents. There’s also the pleasure of discovering that someone can still get to you.

Away with Words is available on all major streaming services. Bandcamp is a great place to settle in and listen:

Listen to Away with Words on Bandcamp

Stay for another song. Dinner can wait.

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For the love of Art Rock

We can know someone for years and still be surprised by what they remember. Especially when we were there, too. Aging could be a factor.  Ever remember an acquaintance in high school clearly and forget who you met last week?

We tell our stories with confidence, until an old friend starts smiling halfway through. We promise we’re listening, then hear something that reminds us of a story of our own. There’s affection in these exchanges, and sometimes a small disappointment we don’t notice until the other person stops talking.

I’m interested in that distance between people—and the unexpected ways it closes. 

A familiar face can become someone we wish we’d known sooner. A person we barely knew can remain with us for a lifetime. We find ourselves imagining ordinary mornings together, or wondering what another choice might have asked of us. Even a life we’re grateful for can leave us curious about the one we didn’t live.

One More Thing grew from those feelings, and from the pleasure people continue to bring us.

Someone comes along, and suddenly we notice the books piled on the other chair. We consider a shirt we haven’t worn in a while. Nothing has been promised. Still, there’s a little more care in what we do, and we catch ourselves enjoying the preparations.

That interests me as much as regret does: our willingness to make room again.

We carry a great deal into each other’s company. Some of it gets told badly. Some of it slips out while we’re talking about something else. And sometimes we’re laughing too hard at a familiar story to get to the end.

There are people we want to hear from. Things we meant to ask them. We can be certain we know the whole story and still hope they’ll tell us more.

I went guitar-forward on most of the tracks – a throwback to Art Rock.  There is an occasional grand piano and the softness of a string ensemble.  But mostly, I long for that solo guitar, the legendary Gibson ES-335 to lift out of the rhythm to tell its tale.  I hope you enjoy it!

One more thing.

I’d love for you to listen.

Listen to One More Thing on Bandcamp

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Walking Some Lines

I’ve always been interested in the distance between what we see and what we think we know.

We meet somebody, notice a few things, hear half a story, and pretty soon we’ve got them figured out. Sometimes we’re right. Sometimes another detail comes along and the whole explanation falls apart.

That became the territory for Apparently.

The songs move through attraction, friendship, vanity, intelligence, kindness, anonymity, love and loss without asking anyone to be the villain. I was more interested in the little contradictions that make people difficult to explain—and considerably more interesting.

Musically, the record ranges pretty widely: cinematic art rock with an indie feel, guitar-forward arrangements, sophisticated rock, touches of soul and country, unusual harmonies, and plenty of room for the musicians to breathe. There are moments that make me laugh and others that became much more emotional than I expected.

It also turned out to be very good road music.

The kind of record I like when the traffic thins out, there’s some distance ahead, and I can actually listen rather than merely have music playing.

[Insert band photograph]

Apparently is available now on all streaming services.

Turn it up and take it somewhere.

Bill Leyden · Apparently

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