Chris Bartlett’s official Explo-Sound Records bio is now posted. You’ll find it here, or just click on the link in the left column under “Pages.”

We really like our funky cartoon-style logo, the one you see on every post on this site. We think it just screams “Indie label!” We plan to keep it around for a long time.

But we realized we needed a more “serious” logo too. A discussion with out art department yielded the very nice second logo you see here.

It’s more of a tuxedo to the cartoon logo’s baggy pants. And it will be the logo that appears on our CD releases and promotional mailings.

We plan to always make occasional use of our original cartoon-style logo though. It will continue to appear with posts on this site. It’s already a part of our history here at Explo-Sound Records.

Explo-Sound: We’re in the Explo-Sound Records studios talking with Chris Bartlett and Habersham Hall about Chris’s upcoming CD release. We’ll talk track-by-track in a bit, but first, let’s get an update and get your comments on the cover.

Chris: I wanted a classic album cover with a strong, simple graphic statement. I had a talk with the creative team, gave them my thoughts. I think the artists nailed it.

Hall: I agree. Very strong concept.

Explo-Sound: Chris, care to give any insight on the meaning of the cover?

Chris: That’s really something that individuals have to decide for themselves. Yes, it has meaning, but I don’t want my explanation crowding out somebody else’s feelings about it — like when the music class teacher tells everyone exactly what they should be picturing when they hear a certain piece of music. Individual interpretation and enjoyment is squashed. I’ll just say I love it for what it is — a great album graphic.

Explo-Sound: Any more news on release date?

Hall: We’re awaiting word from the manufacturer on shipment. That’s about where we stand now. By the way Chris, I just read your MySpace blog entry about the wait. It was perfect. About the answering machine — how’d it go?

Chris: I think it was something like, “I feel like I just left a 62-minute message on the world’s answering machine, and I’m just waiting for the world to get home and check the message and respond.” You liked that, huh?

Hall (laughing): It was perfect. Just perfect. We do have promo CDs ready for mailout. They feature four tracks from the CD. They’ll drop soon after we get the full CDs. We’re planning to fast track the CD’s release almost immediately after that.

Explo-Sound: Well let’s run through the CD tracks and get your thoughts on each one.

1. Crazy About You

Chris (laughing): Well of course we all know the world needed another song with the word “Crazy” in the title.

Hall: I think the world will be glad to have it. It’s a strong song. Production-wise, Chris pictured this with a spartan, framing acoustic guitar track and a mood that gave a hint that it’s a little darker than the lyrics imply. Chris kills on the lead break.

Chris: It was Hab’s idea to lead the CD with it. Good call, I think. It sets the opening tone.

2. Stood Up

Chris: I love singing this.

Hall: I was surprised you wanted it keyboard driven. Total changeup from the acoustic-driven demo. It works though. R & B influence throughout.

Chris: Yeah, it’s just fun. (Laughing) Take-a-hike songs are always fun. But not a lot of songs cover this kind of thing — it happened and this person blew it with me and made themselves not worth hanging with at all. The frustration is easily solved by taking yourself out of the equation, and this is a reminder you don’t have to put up with that stuff, which is just trash anyway. That’s really what the song is about.

3. Burden

Chris: This is my homage to classic 6/8 love ballads. Like the old slow dance hits.

Hall: Just the basics — guitar, organ, bass and drums, with the organ taking the harmony. Works great. Very strong love ballad.

4. You Were Wrong

Chris: The power sweep begins.

Hall: The first of 5 or 6 powerful and radio-friendly tracks in a row. Chris’s guitar work is terrific on this one. I don’t think there’s a keyboard on it.

Chris: Yeah, it’s all guitars. We had a lot of fun with the tracking. It’s kind of a dark song but there’s a brighter reckoning in the chorus. I drew the song from my personal experience — and some from others. Lots of people have suffered similar loss in love. It’s fairly dark, but it’s more empowering than just a wallow-in-your-self-pity song.

5. Take You Home

Chris: Hab calls this my pop anthem.

Hall: Oh yeah, in the best sense of the term. I think it’s awesome. Builds to a classic pop anthem crescendo. I love it.

Chris: It’s a song that morphed in meaning from the song as I originally wrote it. Even now the way I see it is not the way others will see it. It’s hopeful and upbeat, but not cheerful. There’s a lot of longing to help someone in need, maybe be a rescuer — and I don’t necessarily see that as a positive. But I don’t want to take that away from anybody else.

6. The Piper

Chris: I wrote this years ago. I was reluctant to put it on the CD at first.

Hall: I think it’s just too good. It would have been practically a crime to leave it out. Real fun change of pace, almost a shanty. Chris sings it in a deeper chest voice for fun too.

Chris: And we tweaked it and made it more relevant. I took some good advice that I don’t have to be so serious all the time. So it’s a nice release for whatever tension there is in the rest of the album.

Hall: It wouldn’t be the same without it.

7. Forty Pounds

Hall: It’s poetry. Powerful and moving. It’s one I’d use the word “epic” for.

Chris: Well, thanks, but this is getting a little embarrassing. (Chris smiles). But what it’s about… I don’t know how many people experience substance abuse or know someone entangled in it, but it’s another rescue scenario, this one more hopeful. It’s drawn from many sources, personal and otherwise, with an attempt to capture the intensity of such experiences.

Hall: I think it does. And that’s why it is so moving and powerful.

8. Undeserved Curse

Chris: A contemplation on the negative things that happen to us. It pretty much can be taken at face value.

Hall: And it’s another powerful piece of writing. I don’t have the words.

9. Jonah

Hall: We’ve previewed the CD for a few close friends, and this one stops the show. They just sit there with their mouths open, stunned, then they just say, “awesome,” or “incredible.” One even said “genius.” It’s just Chris singing and playing acoustic guitar, no backing tracks. Chris has been pretty close about the meaning of this one, haven’t you?

Chris: I don’t think I’ll ever tell. It’s very stream of consciousness, but it has a lot of personal meaning, I don’t know if I’ll ever tell. What’s most important to me is what it means to the listener.

10: The Counter

Chris (smiling): Somebody started calling this my “Waterfalls” at the tracking dates. And you were one of them, weren’t you?

Hall (laughing): Oh yeah. Only because of that slight cautionary tone though. I love the bridge you added at the last minute. Great opportunity for some retro horn synths and crescendos. And your voice cut right through them. Not many performers can do that.

Chris: I remember knocking out that bridge actually during the tracking session. It seemed like the song was lacking a little extra touch for completeness. Turned out great. I’m happy with it.

11. You Can Play This

Chris: This started as a studio jam and turned into a full track.

Hall: One of those that sort of evolved and produced itself. I love the build, the drums and the fat arrangement that came out of it. Of course those layered acoustic tracks are just big to start with. How many acoustic guitars on that?

Chris: You didn’t keep count? (Laughs.) Tons. An acoustic army. I think I even borrowed a few guitars so they would sound different and the sound would be fatter.

Hall: I’m sure the drummer had a blast. Got to really hit it hard.

12. Biloxi

Chris: This was one I played a lot live. So many people liked it I couldn’t leave it out.

Hall: This version is such a development from the original tracks too.

Chris: Really reworked and freshened — keyboard driven now and more of a power approach. The mellotron adds a lot of classic mood. The song itself actually is a documentation of something a friend went through on his way back home from a failed romance in west Texas. I spoke with him several times on his way back and it sort of inspired me to put those words down.

13. I’m Fine

Hall: I love that the CD is finishing so strong. Another great track.

Chris: I wrote this late in the project, but it was something I was thinking a lot about. It’s a soundtrack to any number of hardships. “This lesson learned” is just one of those phrases that stuck in my mind, and the song evolved around it. It’s a real trick to play through on the twelve-string, but it works. Love the synth vox backing arrangements toward the end. And at the very end, listen for the quick switch to six-string for punctuation. Works great.

Hall: Strong and moving song.

14. Anjileen

Chris: This is another one that started as a studio jam.

Hall: We had a longer version you did, but this one was just lightning in a bottle. It had something… well something sort of indefinable, something evocative that couldn’t be left off the CD. And it’s a perfect coda.

Chris: Kind of cool that it was the first thing we recorded after I signed with Explo-Sound, when I was just feeling out the studio. And now it’s the track we decided to use to close the album. So it was like a common thread or full circle that tied the project together. We tried to re-record it, make it longer, but couldn’t match that first night in the studio moment. That moment, that energy, couldn’t be recaptured.

Thanks, Chris and Habersham. Check back soon for release date information. Also you’ll be able to preview selected tracks soon on Chris Bartlett’s web page.

Q. Chris Bartlett’s CD is finished?

A. Yes, mastering was completed this weekend, and it’s on its way to the manufacturer.

Q. Care to give us any details?

A. I can tell you it’s epic. There are fourteen tracks, and total running time is just over an hour. But the time flies when you listen to it. There’s so much variety and interest. This first CD of Chris’s really showcases his versatility as a writer and a performer. He brought so much great material to the table it would have been a shame to edit down to seven or eight tracks. We still edited to get it down to fourteen, but that means there’s more for his next CD.

Q. How would you describe Chris’s music? What genre would you place him in?

A. Chris isn’t going to be constrained by genre. I really think he’s blazing his own trail here. I’d call it Alternative Rock for convenience’ sake. He’s definitely not cranking out Pop pablum. His music has real substance. His lyrics have meaning. He’s a writer. And you can pick up influences here and there, like Alternative, Southern rock and R & B, but musically he’s genre busting. I’ll leave it to the creative pundits to label his style of music.

Q. Your favorite tracks?

A. Come on :). As Chris’s producer, they’re all my children. I like letting the individual song dictate the production, and Chris’s songs, his singing, and his guitar tracks inspired some powerful, evocative backing tracks and arrangements. I’m tempted to use the word “anthem” to describe a couple of them… well, one in particular. And there’s a short instrumental Chris plays at the end that you just wish would go on and on, it’s just wonderfully moody and so strong. I’m thinking he’ll really expand that in live shows one day. And that track is just a coda, punctuation for the rest of the CD. It’s all very strong. The flow is so good and with such variety and so many strong, interesting songs I feel it will be one of those CD’s people put in the player and hit replay and just listen to it start to finish over and over.

Q. What was it like working with Chris?

A. He’s a poet and an artist. And all that that entails. :). But he’s not moody, or emo. He loves life, and lives it. But his music shows that he feels very deeply, and he’s keenly observant. And his songs are charged with depth and feeling and meaning because of it. You know, like I said — substance. That’s what got him the deal [with Explo-Sound Records], and it’s what brought me aboard. I heard the demo run-throughs he did, and as rough as they were — I think Chris had a bad cold when he did them — there was so much there that I knew I had to do this with him. Plus he’s got a great wit and that comes through too.

Q. Any technical details you want to share about the production?

A. Well, we put the familiar Compact Disc logo on the back cover. That’s the CDDA logo and it means a CD is mastered to “Red Book” standards. The reason you see that logo less and less is because more and more CD’s contain digital rights management software and other non-music or so-called “enhanced” content — sometimes hidden, sometimes not. We mastered to strict Red Book standards and put nothing but the music and CD text on the disc. [Note — CD text allows some CD players to display song titles and artist names while playing.]

We don’t want people to steal our music, of course, or anyone else’s, but we’re not going to try to stop it by intentionally doing things that generate ill will or distrust. We know there are still many people who take the high road and support artists they like by actually buying product. We want to reward them with assurance they’re buying music from us and not additional clutter and junk.

Q. Mind if we ask a couple of questions about you?

A. Uh oh. Go for it I guess.

Q. What’s your background as a producer?

A. Plenty of band experience, several genres, studio musician, writer, and twenty years of radio commercial production and engineering. I’ve been a student of production since the 1960’s, and I’ve studied the greats for years, both in music and radio commercial production. Many of the tricks of the trade and techniques are the same. But when it comes down to it, it’s all a matter of a good ear and good taste, with a willingness to let the music and the song shape the production, rather than force a style of production onto the music. I think that was Tom Dowd’s great strength as a producer. You never got a recognizable signature style from him. You had to read the label to see he did it. The artist’s vision came through, not the producer’s. But it was just good. It was always right.

[This isn’t meant] to diminish the work of someone like Phil Spector, or the Motown producers, whose styles were not only groundbreaking and amazingly influential but instantly recognizable. It works — approaches like that are incredibly successful and result in wonderful music. But I also think an artist brings things to the table that should be allowed to come through, instead of putting them in the mill and whacking them into a mold and stamping out something that sounds exactly like the last 5000 pop songs.

Q. So you’re saying you disdain Pop music today?

A. No, not disdain, there’s a lot of great music. But you have to admit there’s a sameness. I guess that’s why I listen to College and AAA radio so much. That’s where the innovation is. There’s always something really wonderful in those arrangements and mixes, always something fresh and interesting. I guess it’s because there are so many Indie labels producing that music — free from the cookie cutter shaping pressures of the bigger labels. It reminds me of the late 60s and early 70s, if you deduct Disco, there was a wild, eclectic mix of styles and music on the Pop charts. All interesting, some better than others, some terrible, but there was no single homogenized Pop sound like now. College and AAA radio still has that wonderful eclectic vibe.

And by the way, speaking of Pop, enough with the overdone melismatic singing, okay? It’s time people started singing more in a straight line again. But as long as there’s American Idol, and money to be made cranking out tons of McPop, that’s just not going to happen, is it? :)

Q. No, we guess not…

Coming soon, we’ll show you the cover art, give you the track listing, and give some details about a release date. And maybe Chris will preview some tracks on his site for you. Stay tuned for more updates!

We know it has been a long time between announcements, but we’re pleased to report that tracking sessions are finished for Chris Bartlett’s first Explo-Sound Records CD. Mixing is nearly finalized, and after a trip through the mastering process — along with some final revisions to the insert and cover artwork — it’s off to the manufacturer.

Keep watching in the weeks ahead for updates on our progress, and for release date information.