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.