About Me
the first Unsteel recordings were done in march of 2000, in asheville, nc. i was in a band at the time, called This Dizzy Height (or Chunkstyle, depending on who you ask) and borrowed a 4-track from my bandmate (the excellent bassist) Lieutenant Dan Taylor. chaos and procrastination ensued. in spring 2001 i completed the recordings for "Sketches of Serious Need" - initially it was 13 tracks, but i ended up cutting it to eight. (recently a ninth track from the summer of 2001 - a reworking of the first track on the cd - has been added to the "reissue" along with altered liner notes.) in 2004, at the request of one of the few people who heard the first cd, i put together a compilation of recordings done in winston-salem, nc between january 2002 and february 2004, which became "Imaginary Girl" - the second full-length release. in march and april of 2004, i did a tape of 30 recordings as a present for a (now long-lost) friend. this collection, once dumped into my computer, was slimmed down to 10 songs and became "Kuu On Ehdottoman" - the third full-length release. six of the songs were covers of some of my favorite artists' songs (Richard Thompson, Randy Newman and Art Garfunkel among them). the title is Finnish - it roughly translates as "the moon is dead" - though i found out later that it also translates to "a dead month", which is equally appropriate. shortly after that my computer crashed and i lost the other 20 tracks. since i no longer associate with the friend with the original tape, i can't get them back, or i would have put out a bonus cd by now. i moved to greensboro, nc in july 2004. on halloween 2004, i did recordings of two new songs on a friend's computer, which became the single "Solveig and the Princess" - it was supposed to become a larger EP, but it didn't work out that way. in april 2005, things in my life suddenly started to go really well, and since i was suddenly the recipient of as much happiness as i've ever known (real happiness this time, not just that crap you read about), i naturally went on another writing-and-recording binge. at the time, my computer was still dead, so once again recordings were done solely on tape. from april to june of that year, i put down a staggering amount of time on tape. once the computer was alive again, 15 of those tracks became "Behold, The Florist" - full-length 4. (bonus cd still pending.) in the last couple of years, i've done a few limited-edition EPs, but most of those were specifically made as gifts for friends. in june 2006, i incurred a hand injury that led to surgery that following october. consequently, it took until about february 2007 to be able to play guitar again. on a lark in april 2007, i started to put together another EP to cheer up a friend who was going through a rough patch. between april and july i did a few recordings and found some other lost covers fom as far back as 2003 (songs by elliott smith, that dog. and sufjan stevens among them). i've got the tracks mastered at this point for a regular edition and expanded special edition of the "Lily Grace" EP (the friend's online moniker), but i haven't completed the packaging yet. i'll let you know when it's done. i've also half-heartedly been sketching out pre-pre-pre-demos for the next full album, which is to be entitled "Demos For Algernon". i've also got unrealized notions from years back about a triad of EPs ("eastmidwestern" & "sleepy" & "pig iron") that i was going to do. maybe i'll get back around to that before "Algernon" - i haven't decided. well, that's the history - here's some more details. all of the recordings have been done open-room style - live with no overdubs - except the first cd and a couple tracks on "Lily Grace". no one but me has played on any of the official releases until "Lily Grace", which features a little percussion by Donna Robinson and some commentary by Loki Jennings. i have had a bit of behind-the-scenes assistance... Dan Taylor and James Moats helped master "Sketches" and Zach Action helped master "Imaginary Girl" - Stephanie Jennings, Donna Robinson, Drew Salter and Stu Schmidt were all of fabulous help and support during the making of "Behold, The Florist" - Stephanie "Baby Bear" Jennings has been my number one fan and the most supportive person anyone could ask for ever since the first time i played any of my tunes for her - Dave Brown has been a great friend and ear since 1994 (please visit www.myspace.com/sangrelafez) and recently he's been my electronic repair guru, facilitating the use of much more equipment than i had at my disposal previously - Jim Ryan is a great friend and we've been working on writing songs together in the last few months - Pete Bivona is a great friend and has assisted me with lots of guitar issues and the occasional wicked bass line - my friend Renae Ely was one of the first people to bolster my confidence after i finally started trying to disseminate my recordings on the internet - my friends Solveig and Frankenweeny were a great support (and inspiration [Solveig] and source of chocolate bars [Frankenweeny]) in that same period - Gaetano played me on the radio in Italy - Liza played me on the radio in New York City - my brother Erik is always super-supportive and keeps giving me stringed instruments, like my closets aren't already bursting with them - i could probably go on with this list for a while. anyway, other people who have played on unreleased Unsteel recordings include Dave Brown, Drew Salter and Pete Bivona, among others. commentary on unreleased Unsteel recordings has been provided by Stephanie Jennings, Loki Jennings, Donna Robinson and Sue Elliott, among others. if you'd like a cd, just send me a message with your address - i don't have enough faith in my recordings to actually charge for them. (constructive criticism is always appreciated, though.)
