the matthew show revisited, week two, wherein we highlight bits of my career you may have missed the first time around...
A lot of things changed between my first and second album. I became a father, moved back to Texas, had a major sinus surgery, and upgraded my home studio, opening up sonic options that had been more difficult to achieve on texas.
For february, I adopted a docu-pop approach, mixing in spoken word with the music. This track features clips from interviews I did with Maja Ninkovic, Kimberly Perry, Doug Kwartler, Paul Shapera, and Austin Kuebler. Originally the album was going to be called The Disappointment Project, with a tie-in for a website where people could share their stories, taking the stigma out of failure. The larger enterprise never got off the ground, and I opted for february as a title, which is the month around which a lot of people in my family tend to die for some reason. Usual suspects Jeffry Simms, Nancy Giammarco, and the late Jason Jackson provide lovely backing vocals.
This song was a definite attempt to stretch my range, both vocally and stylistically. I seldom perform it live, due to the complexity of the arrangement, but on the odd occasion you can catch me doing it acoustically in Second Life. It's one of the tunes I'm proudest of, and a spot-on snapshot of where I was in my life in the late aughts. If you're familiar with Silence and I by The Alan Parsons Project, the ending guitar melody may strike a chord. I paid Alan and Eric for it, just to be sure.
Enjoy.