Jerome Dillon began Nearly in 1999 while on a holiday break from the Fragility tour as drummer for Nine Inch Nails. "much of the material on this first record came out of demos that I did on my digital four-track in various hotel rooms throughout Europe," he states. "the ideas that were generated during that time were either a result of complete exhaustion - or an attempt to document a recurring dream that I'd been having for about six years. Unfortunately, the dream always ended the same..." without revealing much detail, Dillon infers that it is a peaceful journey that ends in his own death.
The music began to evolve over the course of two years worth of experimenting in the studio with engineer/co-producer, Brett Pierce. "Brett and I were friends first and that definitely had it's pros and cons. From the beginning, he encouraged me to track (or perform) as much as I could on my own, even if it meant that getting a good take (or performance) would take longer to nail down - and his job was to get good sounds and always keep the tape running. This enabled me to me find my own voice or identity on many instruments that I had no business even attempting to play and that in-turn led to the unique characteristics of the record. The downside was that he had no problem telling me how bad I sucked at times." These miscellaneous
recordings were compiled; Dillon and Pierce began to sift through song ideas/structures while beginning the search for a vocalist. "the only things that I knew for sure going in were that I didn't want to make a rock record, I wanted it to be honest and I did'nt want to sing," Dillon states "I had written some vocal melodies and lyrics but I wanted someone else to come in and take it to another level. Claudia Sarne (12 rounds) was a perfect fit for this record," he continues, "she understood where I was going with things musically and conceptually. Claudia has an interpretive insight as an artist that is all her own - not to mention an incredible sense of melody, rhythm and space. in addition, it was a plus that her and I share a mutual hatred for most singer/songwriters." the result is a record that ties together many themes to one unified concept with various musical and lyrical threads. "I always hoped that in the end, it would ALL come together like pieces to a puzzle. If I stayed on track (musically and otherwise), it would work itself out and everything contained within would all relate back to the same place... no matter how fucked up things seem, the one dim light that always shines is complete honesty with yourself. Where you're going - where we're ALL going...someday."
Other musicians listed on the first record from Nearly include: Greg Dulli (The Afghan Whigs, the Twilight Singers), Keith Killebrandt (NIN Programmer), and violinist, Petra Haden.
