I would imagine that many towns with enough musicians has open mic events.  Our does.  Some of them are truly open... arrive, jump on a sign up list, play.  Some of them are curated... anyone can play, but you must sign up in advance of the show date. You'll see all sorts of musicians at these events. You'll see seasoned musicians working out new material.  You'll see people performing their own music in public for the first time.  You'll sometimes see a musician build an ad-hoc band right there in the venue, and perform a few songs with no rehearsal. I tend to enjoy these events, as seeing live music always tends to give me the good endorphins.

I am sure there are more open mic events in the Greater Dayton area than I know of.  I am very familiar with the one at Peach's Grill in Yellow Springs.  It is hosted by the effervescent Kyleen Downes, who you might recognize from a previous blog post here.  (Sign up for that one is right here.) In addition to delicious pizza, South Park Tavern has an open mic even on Wednesdays. (Sign up for that one is right here.)  My favorite of these events in the area is Showcase Thursday over at Yellow Cab Tavern. I can't share a sign up for that one, you need to do it in person.

Although I always enjoy these sorts of events, I prefer the ones where everyone is playing original music. Foremost among these types of events are Songwriter-in-the-Round type occasions.  For these, each songwriter plays one original song in turn, and round and round we go.  I've attended countless of these events, but had never had the opportunity to play in one until last week, Sunday March 27th.  Rich Reuter hosted the Songwriter-in-the-Round at Devil Wind Brewing in my hometown of Xenia, Ohio, and invited me to be part of the lineup.

This is going to become a photo blog now.

That right up there is my hometown.  Specifically, it is the view toward the courthouse from Detroit Street, just south of Main Street.

This next picture right here is Khrys Blank arriving.  She played during the same Round as me, and she is exactly as cool as she looks in this photograph.  Dennis Geehan also played in that Round, but since I was next to him during the time we played, I didn't get any pictures of him.

The second Round of the evening consisted of Nicolas Johnson, Jenna Gomes, and the host, Rich Reuter.

The last Round was Kevin Milner, Rachel Litteral, and Anna Marie.

It's always somewhat emotional playing songs in front of people, but that was cranked up for me, as this was my first time playing in my hometown.  Also, it was a bit nerve-wracking to be surrounded by so much talent. We all survived it though, and then I got the post-show endorphins.  

I'll keep on trying to play as many events like this as I can.  I'll also keep trying to attend even when I'm NOT playing, as a way to show support for people who are brave enough to share a piece of their art with the public when they don't know how it will be received. These open mic events are customarily free to attend.  I encourage you, no matter where you are, to try to find similar events in your area and try one of them out.  You never know, you might discover some music that you love.

I think today is a good day to tell you about my in-progress EP.  Let's pretend I'm a journalist and use the 5 W questions, shall we?

Photo by Joshua Chan

WHY?

I wrote a great deal of songs during the pandemic.  Most of these, you'll never hear.  They're not all winners, you know.  As I kept writing, several of the songs ended up being about Black experiences. As they say, write what you know.  Now, I've written about this sort of thing before. After all, writing songs is how I process emotions and try to deal with my anxiety and depression and life in general. Eventually, I had written enough songs that I thought were good enough to not discard. I'd like to share them.  That's what songwriters do, you know, we generally prefer to share what we write. Instead of staggering these songs across multiple releases, I decided to collect them all into one project.

WHO?

The songs on this project are all very much about Black experiences. That being the case, I thought that the best way to approach recording them would be to enlist the assistance of people who would most be able to personally relate to the subject matter.  The artistic aesthetic for this project is that all personnel are Black. This includes musicians, engineer, mixer, mastering engineer, photographer, videographer, and graphic design. If you've read my blog or heard me talk about music, you know that I consider collaboration to be a highly valuable and important part of making art. This is an opportunity for me to work with some very talented people who I've never worked with before. I feel like the enthusiasm they are bringing to this project can only enhance the final product.

WHERE?

I am recoding at The Dreamcatchers Recording Studio in Reynoldsburg, Ohio. Rizo is the gentleman at the controls.

WHAT?

This is going to be an EP.  In addition to the detail about the personnel above, it will be different from my past work in two major ways.

First, every single song on this project is told from my point of view. By saying that, I don't mean that I've never written a song from my own point of view before.  "North of Sixteen", from Echo in the Crevices, is very much a first person story, and it's a very clear narrative. "Goodbye", from Anxious Inventions & Fictions, is another example of me being the voice speaking in the song. This certainly isn't the case all of the time. Songs like "I Am a Number" and "Your Anthem" are observational.  Songs like "Little Light" , "Le Soldat", and "She Speaks in Metaphor" are purely fiction, but plausible. My most recent single, "Wapakoneta", consists of a kernel of true memories buried in a fabricated story. This new project however... this is extremely personal. I am the voice on all of the songs. I am open, I am vulnerable, and I am speaking the truth. Note that you won't find any instances of me pushing for social or political causes or changes on this EP. (If you're looking for my thoughts in those areas, feel free to reach out to me in person.) I am saying things that are true, and then saying how I feel about them. The listener is free to draw their own conclusion. Being this open is scary.

Second, every song on this EP is in a different genre. Usually, piano is my tool of choice for writing songs. Piano provides a blank slate. There are a nearly unlimited amount of choices one can make as far as arrangement and instrumentation when starting with piano. As I arranged the songs, I tried to put together arrangements that would best serve each song. After I got three songs into the project, I noticed that they were all different genres. At that point, I decided to lean into it. Yes, each song is a different genre, but they all sound like me.

There is another detail about this project that I'll keep secret, but it is a secret that I have shared with the lovely people who subscribe to my mailing list. They are the first to know what I am up to, and I share inside information with them that I won't share elsewhere. If you'd like to join them and step into my world, please sign up here.

In a nod to Jimi Hendrix, the name of the EP will be I Am Experienced.

WHEN?

This blog post is going up on Monday January 17th, 2022.  In the United States, that is a federal holiday called Martin Luther King Jr. Day.  Some people in the United States might spend a few minutes on this day thinking about topics such as racism, prejudice, and equality. Some people might spend a few minutes thinking about how to not be partial in one's individual interactions with other humans, or what the world might be like if everyone had an altruistic love for their fellow person. Many people ask themselves when, if ever, anything will improve. Those are all valid thoughts, and I'm not going to address them here. I will say that I have made some art in which I talk about my feelings, I am working hard to get it professionally recorded, and I will share it with you as soon as I possibly can.

There are several "first" experiences in my life that happened on the beautiful island of Sri Lanka.  Most of these things are educational and positive experiences. It was the first place that I saw the sun set over the Indian Ocean. It was the first place I toured a tea plantation.  It was my first time feeding and riding an elephant.  (That last one scared me out of my mind.)  I had my first delicious encounter with Singapore Chili Crab, a dish that is popular where you might expect based on its name, but the crabs are imported from Sri Lanka.  I tried kankun for the first time. I saw a water monitor crossing the road. I smelled a cinnamon plant that was right next to the street, as common as any deciduous tree would be here. Several foods that were unfamiliar to me at the time found their way onto my personal list of favorite things to eat; barramundi, sprats, pol sambol, hoppers, string hoppers, lamprais... everything but sweets, essentially.  Arrack was also a nice discovery for me. I learned the Sinhalese greeting "ayubowan".

There were also, however, some "first" experiences that were not quite as happy or pleasant.  Colombo was the first city I have visited where the army was deployed to the streets around the city.  I had my first experiences with military checkpoints. It was my first time being completely and utterly lost in a country where I could not speak the language. 

The sum of my experiences - both positive and negative - are the backdrop for the song "A Morning Like Yours".  Before I get into the details of the song, I'd like to share some photos based on the memories I mention above.

That right there is a Sri Lankan lagoon crab as the featured star of the Singapore Chili Crab dish.

Here's a typical Sri Lankan breakfast for me: Egg hopper, red string hoppers, coconut sambol, another sambol that tasted like burning, mutton curry.

This will likely never happen again.  I am not a small human being, right?  I look downright tiny on top of this kind and gentle and somewhat elderly elephant. Yeah, interacting with creatures that are larger than me, it's not my thing.

Oh, hello there Galle Face Green and World Trade Center.

The first time I set foot in Colombo was 2010. Unlike well-known traveler Anthony Bourdain, I didn't visit during the war.  In fact, while I was there the first time, the Sri Lankan government was planning a parade and a celebration to commemorate the one year anniversary of the war ending... there were roads blocked off, warships gathering off the West coast of the island, and the occasional tank... and then it poured rain for a couple of days, and the celebration didn't happen.  (A Google search tells me that the parade was held the following month.) The war was over, but the army was still in the streets. That was a somewhat frightening experience for me, as I had never been in a place with active military members on patrol. When I would walk around the neighborhood, I would see the soldiers - all of whom looked impossibly young - and hope that I wasn't going to give any of them reason to point those large weapons they carried in my general direction.

As I continued to visit over the years, the military presence diminished.  The checkpoints went away.  I felt safe, which is, of course, a mirage, as there isn't really any such thing as a place that is "safe".  

I stayed in four different hotels across my visits to Sri Lanka: Cinnamon Grand, Cinnamon Lakeside, and The Kingsbury in Columbo, and Mount Lavinia Hotel in Mount Lavinia.  These are all luxury hotels with varying degrees of opulence in the region, but due to exchange rates and the world economy, the cost per night is about the same as your average Marriott here in my home state of Ohio. No, it's definitely not fair, and it's one of those things I would try not to think too deeply about when I visited.  I was there to work, and it was rather nice that accommodations with that level of comfort were an acceptable price for my company to pay.  I would have breakfast in a hotel restaurant specifically open for that purpose every day, then head off to work...  after breakfast on the weekends, I might stroll around the neighborhood, go out on a touristy-type visit, spend time in the hotel gym, play tennis with the designated hotel staff member for that, walk around an air-conditioned mall... you know, that sort of thing.

I reference those normal activities with the lyrics of the opening verse to  "A Morning Like Yours".

Take my coffee by the window
Looking at your ocean 
Text my wife a little hello 
Put the day in motion 
Get a smile from the hopper station with my dal and sambol 
Just a morning like yours 
Just a morning like yours

The time zone difference between Sri Lanka and the United States is such that my mornings corresponded to late evening over here. Sometimes Misty was awake, sometimes she was not... at any rate, my mornings were never the time for conversation outside of a brief text or two.  The lyric about the hopper station... well, I certainly don't know how to make egg hoppers, so the hotels would all have a staff member assigned to handle that during breakfast. These people were at work, so maybe they weren't really feeling cheerful, but they always smiled and said "good morning" when I would ask them to please cook me an egg hopper.

Take a walk around Colombo
Looking at your ocean 
Heavy traffic from the get-go 
Bustle and commotion 
Get a smile from the hopper station with my dal and sambol 
Just a morning like yours 
Just a morning like yours

Colombo is a densely populated city with common large city afflictions.  There are a lot of cars.  There are traffic jams.  There are people everywhere.  That said, from three of the four hotels I have had the pleasure to stay in whilst on the island, the ocean is a short stroll away. Depending on which side of the building your room is located, you can even see the ocean from the windows at The Kingsbury and Mount Lavinia Hotel.  Here in Ohio, I don't have an ocean to look at, so this was a nice treat for me.

A terrible thing happened on April 21, 2019.

Be honest.  Do you even remember this happening?  I'm not sure if it is the case in your particular city, state, or country, dear reader, but where I live, most people tend to be poorly informed of world events, of different cultures, and even of horrible evil like the bomb attacks on 21st April 2019.  I would like to think that this is something that would make me angry and sad no matter where it happened, however, I am certainly more deeply emotionally affected by this event because I've spent time in Colombo. There are folks who I was proud to call colleagues in Sri Lanka. I've had rewarding conversations with regular every day people in Sri Lanka. These are people who had to deal with a lengthy civil war in the not-too-distant past, and after that ended, surely it felt as if things were headed in a positive direction... and then this.  There isn't any such thing as a place that is "safe".

Two of the locations that were bombed are restaurants where I would sit for breakfast every day... the one at The Kingsbury on the third floor (I do not remember what it is called), and Taprobane at Cinnamon Grand, down on the lower level. On this particular Sunday, these restaurants were filled with regular people going about their lives; families on vacation, business travelers who were on multi-week trips, local folks who felt like having a special breakfast.  These restaurants, of course, were also filled with hard-working employees and fellow citizens of the people who carried out the attacks. Lives ended or permanently changed by being in the wrong place at the wrong time. On another day, that could have been me. These thoughts inspired the last part of the song.

Take your tea by the same window 
Looking at your ocean 
Just an ordinary Sunday 
Until the explosion 
Get a smile from the hopper station when the shrapnel hit you 
Just a morning like mine 
Just a morning like mine 
Wrong place and wrong time 
Just a morning like mine

I don't think this song is good enough to take to a recording studio.  Maybe I'll change my mind about that someday, but right now, that's where it stands.  That said, it accurately sums up how I feel, which is kind of the point of songwriting.  As a wise man once said, "time and chance happen to all".

If you'd like to hear the song, my home demo is attached to this blog entry.

I had this bass line in D major around for awhile.  It was fun enough to play through that it deserved to have a song written around it, even though I don't generally write in major keys.  The bass line best lent itself to Latin-influenced music... cumbia, salsa, rumba, merengue, bachata... something like that... the problem is that I don't know how to write any of that music.  Where would I begin?

I began with research.  I listened to a handful of songs from each of the above mentioned genres.  This part of the process probably deserved a lot more time than I dedicated to it... but it was a decent start.  Next, I asked a few friends who I know listened to Latin music if they could tell me more about it.  That didn't work.  The general answer there was that they have it around to dance to, but they couldn't really tell me anything about it.  (Note to self:  do NOT ask non-musicians about music.)  On to the Internet!

For some reason, salsa became the genre of choice here.  Any article or commentary I could find online about salsa music history and structure, well, I devoured it.  I learned that the traditional structure for this genre doesn't even remotely resemble the way that I understand songwriting... then decided that if I attempted to be "authentic" and write a salsa song by traditional structure without truly understanding it, well, that's not very authentic at all, is it?  The solution?  I ended up writing a pop/rock song in the normal pop/rock tradition, but with Latin influences.  Of course, the lyrics had to be in Spanish, there was never any doubt about that.

The result is "Baile Conmigo".  Here are the lyrics.

Baile conmigo 
Baile conmigo 

Oye hermosa 
Pareces muy sola 
Charlar contigo 
No hay quien osa 

¿Por qué? 
¿Por qué? 

Oye hermosa 
Tanta guapeza 
Hace una persona 
Muy muy nerviosa 

No soy metido 
Te hablo, te pido 
Te hablo, te pido 
Baile conmigo

This is what the artwork for it looks like.

As usual with my songs, I had a several very talented folks help out with this recording.  Here are the song credits:

Mike Bankhead - bass, piano, vocals 
Khrys Blank - claves, shakers, all sorts of percussion 
Brian Hoeflich - drums 
Phillip Bradley-Hutchinson - trumpet 
Erich Reith - congas, all sorts of percussion 
Rich Reuter - guitar 

Produced by Patrick Himes & Mike Bankhead 

Engineered & Mixed by Patrick Himes at Reel Love Recording Company, Dayton, Ohio

***

Percussive power couple Khrys and Erich were kind enough to do their usual moving and shaking all over the recording, supporting Brian Hoeflich's steady drumming.  (I asked him if he could give me a salsa beat, and he gave me a salsa beat.)  Phillip Bradley-Hutchinson's trumpet is a perfect addition.  Rich Reuter deftly brings lead guitar licks that sing ever so smoothly over all of it.  Finally, as usual, Patrick Himes and engineering and mixing skills present the best version of my work... and he didn't even blink when the indie rock guy showed up with a decidedly non-indie rock song.

This song was recorded amongst the songs that ended up on Anxious Inventions & Fictions, but doesn't really fit in with those songs, so it stands on its own as a single.

You'll be able to listen to "Baile Conmigo" this Friday April 2nd.  It will be available right here on my website, and also over on my Bandcamp page. You'll be able to download on Bandcamp for "pay what you wish" pricing, even if what you wish happens to be zero.  If you do decide to offer some small measure of compensation for the download on Bandcamp, well, since April 2nd is Bandcamp Friday, 100% of all funds will come straight to me, as the kind folks at Bandcamp are waiving their customary fees that day.

Dad's Album of the Week is back.  This is the series where I briefly review my late father's vinyl.

Return to Forever featuring Chick Corea - No Mystery

Another fusion album from my father's collection.  There is funk here.  There is rock here.  There is jazz here.  Why did my dad like this so much?  Well, he was a drummer.  The drums on the opening track, "Dayride", are insane... there are brief periods of frenetic fills and explosivity... it's much more than just keeping time.  Oh, and look, that first track was written by bass legend Stanley Clarke. 

It's an interesting approach to collaboration here.  On the first side of the album, each member of the band gets a song, and the last song is credited to all four of them.  On the second side of the album, well Chick Corea wrote all of those, but that's ok, as he put this band together.

The bass lines are awesome, and mostly so advanced that I don't know if I'll ever have the chops to play them.  There are blistering guitar solos.  There are all sorts of interesting keyboard licks from both normal acoustic pianos and all kinds of electric pianos and synth.  Even congas and a marimba show up on this album.   

Summary:  I very much dig.  If you are a musician, go listen to this.  The musicianship on display here is outstanding.  If you're the sort that is swayed by critical acclaim, this won a Grammy.

Plenty of folks don't use Twitter.  If you are one of those folks, you didn't see some brief songwriting thoughts I wrote over there earlier this week.  I feel like sharing those here.

***

I have been learning Fountains Of Wayne songs on piano recently, mostly due to my love and admiration for fellow bass player Adam Schlesinger and his work...  That said, for any songwriter, the catalog of songs written by Chris Collingwood and Adam Schlesinger is basically a "how-to" on the craft... Here are some things that I am taking note of as I work my way through learning the songs from across all of the Fountains Of Wayne albums.

The songs are simple.  The country song in the catalog has only 3 major key chords (keeping in mind the axiom about how many chords country songs need to be)... You won't find a great deal of suspended or diminished chords, not a lot of add9 or 13 chords... the occasional 7 chord yes, but it's mostly major and minor triads... Personally, I like messing around with more complicated chords when I write songs, and of course, there isn't anything wrong with that... but these songs are a good reminder that you can keep it very very very simple and succeed.

When there is a bridge, it is exemplary.  I would love to just take the Fountains Of Wayne bridge-writing skill and append it to my brain.

The leading chords into a chorus, back into a verse, and anywhere they need a turnaround... their choices with these are impeccable.

The tactic of changing the key for the last verse and chorus of a song... they don't go to that all that often, but when they do, it works perfectly.

Professional songwriting "experts" will tell you to not make specific references to locations or people in your songs.  Fountains Of Wayne does this as many times as they like. Places throughout New York and New Jersey are named clearly in their songs.  As a Midwesterner, I never had the experience growing up of driving over the Tappan Zee bridge, down I-95, on the LIE, riding the Acela, or being led into Penn Station. That doesn't matter.  I don't enjoy the songs any less.  The songs would not be better if those specific life experiences were homogenized or made generic.  Write what you know.  Write for YOU first.  They do this over and over again. "Hackensack" is a brilliant song, and someone not having visited it does not change that.

The lyrics have clearly been chosen with care.  There are interesting and non-obvious rhymes and near rhymes.  For the most part they are all sorts of conversational.

If you write songs, definitely re-visit these albums.

***

If you happen to use Twitter, I invite you to follow me on that platform.  You can find me here.

Way back in April 2020, I began an interview series here on the blog.  I call it "Amplified" because my intent is to make the voices of artists louder.  We musician types desperately wish to be heard, and although I don't exactly have a mammoth readership, I figured I'd try to get some additional ears to the work of folks I respect.  After all, I'd love for someone to do that for me, and am grateful for every single listener.  Here's a brief summary of a very diverse group of people who agreed to participate this year:

Lauren Light - pop/soul singer/songwriter, podcaster, owner of a licensing company

Nina Pelligra - a capella looper artist, songwriter, engineer

Sarah Rudy - guitarist, songwriter

Dirty Doc - guitarist, songwriter

Shannon Söderlund - bassist, guitarist, songwriter

TINO - rapper, songwriter, performer

Greg Owens - guitarist, singer/songwriter

Treneti - vocalist, bassist, songwriter, producer

Megan Fiely - abstract artist, recovering musician

OriSoaring - multi-instrumentalist classically trained on saxophone, songwriter

If you missed any of these, I encourage you to revisit the interviews at the links.  Listen to the music, look at the artwork, connect with the artists on social media.

Normally I schedule my blog post topics a few weeks out, and even write them as far in advance as I can... but that didn't work out recently.  My mental health issues - which I have written about before - are giving me quite the pummeling recently, and my ability to be focused and remotely organized is suffering.  Here are some current random thoughts.

•  I'm watching baseball tonight.  My favorite baseball team is in the National League Championship Series for the first time in a long time.  The last time they actually won a World Series was my senior year of high school.  Yes, I'm that old.  The responsibility for my love of just about every single possible sport belongs squarely to my late father, though, with the exception of Ohio State, I was never a fan of his favorite teams.  (This is a good thing, because he was a lifelong Browns fan, and that's a thing that brought him no small amount of anguish over the years.)  Baseball has a special place in my heart, and is my favorite sport to watch in person.\

• Not sleeping well is causing me to be in a near-constant state of exhaustion, which is surely leading me to an early death.  Last night, I turned in at a very reasonable hour, and actually fell asleep... only to wake up after a couple of hours.  By the time I managed to look at the clock, it was around 1:40, but my wife says she noticed me being awake and disturbed around 12:30.  I was awake most of the rest of the night, which was no good, because I had a morning online training session for my corporate job (indie rock does not pay the bills), and I kind of needed to be able to think clearly and focus for that.  No bueno.  If there is any bright side here, I managed to write a song between the hours of 3 and 4 in the morning, and I don't hate it yet.

• I might write a series of musings on love at some point, much like I did this year with a series on dreams.  I tend to develop a certain amount of affection for anyone with whom I have ever had a particularly meaning conversation, and for the people I have known the longest, that tends to run deeper.  Of course, there are people who one loves because one decides to, and people who one no longer loves because one decides not to, but for me, most of all that isn't very voluntary.  I've been thinking about this more recently because some of my classmates from way way back in my youth have been dealing with assorted types of life adversity, and one of the decent things about social media is the ability for us to know some of these things.  I've recently been feeling a mix of being heartbroken for them while also in awe of their resilient spirit and perseverance.   

Those of you who live in the Dayton area and follow local music are probably already familiar with Doctor Art Jipson, but for readers who are not, I offer a brief introduction.  Doctor Jipson is a professor at the University of Dayton with expertise in sociology and criminal justice.  Yeah, heavy stuff.  When he is not shaping young minds in the classroom, he is shaping them via music, as he is DJ on a WUDR program called Your Tuesday Afternoon Alternative.  I think it's fair to say that there isn't anyone who cheers louder for independent musicians from Dayton and around Ohio than Dr. J.   

Recently, Dr. J has been playing "I Am a Number" on his show.  Now, I didn't release or advertise that particular song as a "single".  All of Anxious Inventions & Fictions is FCC friendly, so all of it could conceivably receive radio play, and while I encourage the folks at college and indie radio who receive the album to play whatever they want, most often folks don't get past the "singles".  Dr. J plays the music he likes, the music that moves him, and I am thoroughly pleased that he likes "I Am a Number" enough to give it airplay.  That being the case, as a gift to him - and also to all of you out there - here's the story of that song.  I hope you enjoy the story, and I hope you like the song as much as Dr. J does.  (Thank you, Dr. J.)

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN

Ten dollar book filled with twenty cent words
Juxtaposed only to make it absurd
Carelessly tripping your way around diction
Turning your stories from fact into fiction

I had the above lyrics sitting around for several years.  Despite what they sound like given today's climate, they are not about any political figures.  Those lyrics were originally about a certain social media platform with the word "book" in its name, and about how people would share things that are verifiably false or absolute nonsense.  Note that again, I wrote these words long before it became common knowledge that social media is weaponized as a propaganda tool by all sorts of nefarious actors.  It took awhile before I was able to compose any music to fit the lyrics.  When I finally did, I had to simplify the lyrics a bit to make them fit the song, make them easier to sing (a nod to Greg Owens for the idea to turn "tripping" into "trip"), and create some extra alliteration ("stories" became "tale").

I composed the music on piano, like I often do.  The main riff consists of individual notes F, A, and C, followed by a G major chord and two F major chords.  Right from the beginning, I knew I wanted this to be a guitar rock song, and I knew I wanted it to sound like Knoxville's own Superdrag.  John Davis - formerly of Superdrag and currently the man behind The Lees Of Memory - is a strong influence on my songwriting.  You don't always hear it, but on Anxious Inventions & Fictions, that influence is clear on "I Am a Number" and "Promise".  In order to get to the sound I wanted, I recruited Tim Pritchard (who you might know from bands such as The Boxcar Suite and Shrug) to play guitar, since he loves the work of John Davis as much, if not more, than I do.  I told Tim that I wanted it to sound like a Superdrag song, and he knew what to do.  When there were questions about a tonal approach for some of the guitar parts, I asked him to imagine what Brandon Fisher would do, and away we went.

Also, community drummer Brian Hoeflich deserves a special shout-out here.  I asked him to do his best Don Coffey Jr. impression, and he did that.  However, I made an arrangement change at the last moment, in the studio... a couple of deviations from how I had done the demo.  I tried to explain it verbally, but the most effective way to show Brian what I was looking for was to sit at the piano and play/sing the entire song for him.  We went to the piano, he brought a piece of paper, and he charted the entire song as I played it and sang.

I had one music writer tell me that this song reminded him of Hüsker Dü.  Now, I have only listened to three or four Hüsker Dü songs, and although I know how respected Bob Mould is (I see you Joe Anderl), I have only listened to a couple of his solo albums.  I haven't listened to nearly enough of that band to be influenced by them directly... but I have 5 Superdrag albums, and have seen them 3 times... so, any Hüsker Dü influence one might hear in my music comes filtered through John Davis.

I had been playing this one out at Showcase Thursdays and other open mic events on piano before eventually getting in the studio with it.  Strangely enough, even though bass is my main instrument, I didn't write the bass line for the song until the day before tracking it.  Listen closely during the chorus, and you might notice that the bass notes follow the vocal melody, and not necessarily exactly what the guitars are playing. 

As they say, if you can't figure out what the product is on a given tool or website, then YOU are the product.  When it comes to social media, we are the product.  That's something worth keeping in mind.  Obviously, I use social media, I mean, you probably arrived at this blog post via a link from one of the sites where I maintain a presence. These tools have their uses, and I'm not trying to say that they are all evil all of the time.  What I am trying to say is best expressed in the song lyrics:

How great is your stake in me?
This is all marketing data for sale
How much will you lie to me?
This is all marketing, targeted offering
I am a number 

Anxious Inventions & Fictions is officially being released this Saturday, September 12th, so yes, I am shouting it from the rooftops everywhere because I would really love for you to at least listen to it, maybe even purchase it.  (This is where you can purchase it.) Have you noticed the beautiful cover art for the album?  If not, well, here it is again:

Megan Fiely is the artist responsible for this painting that is hanging on the wall of my home, and also gracing the cover of Anxious Inventions & Fictions, both in the digital realm and in hard copy.  How about getting to know this artist better?  Interview questions after the picture:

1.  Let's hear the elevator pitch for your skill set. 

I am an abstract artist who works with bold texture and color, simultaneously exploring the celestial and the microscopic. 

2.  When did you first start painting? 

Visual communication, in one form or another, has always been my thing. My parents are both artists so I'm lucky to have absorbed art like a native language. I've taken a lot of different creative paths like music, clay, and quilting (!), but the painter you'd currently recognize as Megan Fiely started happening about 7 years ago. I have older paintings, but I was just fumbling around and imitating other artists, which is very important. I now feel secure evolving my own distinct style. 

3.  You are best known as a visual artist, but you are also a musician, and maybe folks who are familiar with your paintings don't know that.  What instruments do you play, and when did you start making music? 

I play the piano and sing at home, and have a guitar for fun too. I started doing all that stuff as a kid: first piano lessons in elementary school and then of course a Fender Stratocaster at 12 or 13, followed by a sanded down but rather nice repainted bass with a fairy painted on it. I had the typical 90s power chord cover band who played for 3 of our friends in the garage. Then in my 20s I dated a musician and one night his bass player didn't show up (again). I got out of the bathtub to go fill in and accidentally became a bassist for several years. Eventually I folded in one of those newer Hammond keyboards that has a built in tube, put it through a Marshall and played bass lines with my left hand on a Korg. I also always contributed back up vocals, and have a good ear for harmonies. 

Honestly though, I'm better with a paintbrush. I like leaving the music to all my talented friends and painting album covers for them when I get a chance. And on that note, thanks for including me in the Anxious Inventions & Fictions project Mike! 

4.  What was the first album you can remember buying with your own money? 

Pretty sure it was Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness - Smashing Pumpkins. Or maybe No Doubt's Tragic Kingdom. 

5.  Tell me about the last concert you saw. 

The last official concert while not bartending at Yellow Cab was all the way back in summer 2019 when The Breeders played at Levitt Pavillion. (Mike adds: I wrote about that show in a previous blog entry.)  That was a lot of fun because almost everyone I knew was in the audience. I remember rocking out in the audience with you, Mike! Kim and Kelly are cool but Josephine's my babe because tall, bassist, British. 

6.  What artists do you consider to be your biggest influences, and why?  This can include any kind of art... poets, painters, sculptors, songwriters, etc. 

Van Gogh is everyone's favorite, including mine. He was more than just a painter though: Van Gogh was a part of the earth, and maybe some kind of human conduit for nature's beauty. My art doesn't look like his, but I think all artists are attempting to tap that same vein. 

Also Chagall, Klimt, O'Keefe. Again, my work doesn't look like theirs but I appreciate the spirit of their work, and of course all the color. I like when a figurative piece tells a story. 

7.  I imagine that artists like yourself face a similar challenge to musicians in that (1) art is generally devalued by the public just like music is and (2) there may be people willing to buy your art, but it can be difficult to find them.  How do you deal with those two challenges?

STAY IN THE STUDIO. I had to stop looking for gratification though sales or popularity. I'm a very sensitive and anxious person with big opinions, so I tend to find myself in difficult situations when I'm being too public. I'm happier just living simply and focusing on the actual craft of painting. It seems like putting my energy into the art itself, rather than sales, results in just as many sales anyway. I feel valued and recognized by friends like you, Mike, and I'm seriously not bs-ing you that it's enough. Plus you had me paint your album cover so.... things do tend to work out. 

It's important to consider your audience as well. Do I really want to sell my art to rich people or corporations as part of some interior design project? Sure, but you best believe I'm gouging them! I'd seriously rather sell 10 small paintings to my friends at $60 a pop than make one big sale and never see the painting again. I am so fortunate to have a lot of creative and supportive friends and to live in a city that values the arts. I want to encourage regular people to collect and commission original art, rather than seeing it as out of reach because of the art snobs. Understanding this allows me to opt out of the things I don't want to do. 

8.  How do you know when a painting is done? 

Finishing is the easy part, since by that point I've worked out all the technical aspects of the composition, balance, and texture. Perfecting the color happens close to the end. It's the mystical, meditative part of the journey. Once the colors are singing and dancing around the canvas, I know I'm very close to finished and I do some final technical adjustments. I'll dry brush metallics in places that need just a little more dimension, for example. Then I'll set it somewhere in my house for a few days and just cohabitate with the painting, and adjust anything that strikes me as distracting or otherwise bothersome. Then I sign it on the side of the canvas and it's done.

***

Big thanks to Megan for the lovely painting on my wall, being willing to do this interview, and being a genuinely kind and lovely human.  Also, look at the colors jump off the screen in those samples of her work!  You can browse what she has available for sale at her online store.  You can also find her on Instagram.

What?

The album title is Anxious Inventions & Fictions, which is a lyric taken from the piano ballad "Insomnia".  The album art looks something like this:

Megan Fiely, "Insomnia", 24" X 24", acrylic on canvas, 2020.

This album exists in two versions. 

First, there is a ten song digital version.  Do you remember my crowdfunding campaign in order to press vinyl from earlier this year?  That did not get funded, so the ten song digital version is what the album would have been on vinyl.  In order to duplicate the vinyl experience, after the fifth song finishes playing, press pause on your device, get up and walk around the room for thirty seconds to simulate flipping the record over, and then continue. 

Second, there is a twelve song deluxe version on compact disc.  This contains two additional songs, an alternate mix of the opening track "Your Anthem", and a different track order, for a custom listening experience. The CD also comes with a twelve page booklet, containing lyrics, liner notes, and art.  For both versions, the album is sequenced carefully, and the listener is meant to listen to all of the songs in order.

Who?

Mike Bankhead.  That's the name/logo on the cover.  I wrote and arranged the songs for the most part.  I say "for the most part", because TINO wrote lyrics and is featured on one song (you might remember a blog post about him), and Greg Owens co-wrote another song (you might remember a blog post about him as well).  Also, two songs feature string arrangements by the outrageously talented Blair Breitreiter.  But wait, there is more...

Here is a list of the wonderful folks who lent their time and talents to this album:

Eli Alban
Dustin Booher 
Blair Breitreiter 
Thad Brittain  
Chris Corn 
Ken Hall
Valentino Halton
Patrick Himes 
Brian Hoeflich
Chad Middleton
Kent Montgomery
David Payne 
Nathan Peters 
Tim Pritchard 
Tod Weidner 
Heather York

This album sounds good, mostly because of this list of humans.  For those of you who are not familiar with independent music in Dayton, you'll just have to trust me when I say that some of the finest musicians in our area are represented here.  

Also, a tip of the hat to Megan Fiely for the beautiful painting, and to Spencer Williams for the photography, layout, and design.

When?

There are some different answers to this question.  Let's start with making the album.  Tracking and mixing took place between February 2019 and February 2020.  That's a year of hard work, not just my own efforts, but also the people listed above, and specifically Patrick Himes as the recording and mixing engineer and David Payne as assistant engineer.

You can order this album on September 4th.  That happens to be Bandcamp Friday, when Bandcamp forgoes their customary cut of artist sales.  That means that all of the funds spent on Anxious Inventions & Fictions on that specific date go to me, and contribute to my ability to continue making art for you to enjoy.  If perchance you don't know where to find me on Bandcamp, here's the link for you to bookmark:

https://mikebankhead.bandcamp.com/

The official release date for this album is September 12th.  That is the day that you will be able to listen to it on the Bandcamp page I just mentioned.  That's also the day for which a safe, socially distanced, outdoors release celebration is planned.

For those of you who only listen to music via streaming services, you will find Anxious Inventions & Fictions available there on September 15th.

Where?

The album was recorded and mixed at Reel Love Recording Company in Dayton, Ohio.  Blair handled some additional recording of string arrangements at Bohemian Trash Studios in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  The album was mastered at True East Mastering in Nashville, Tennessee.

The socially distanced release celebration will happen at Yellow Cab Tavern on 4th Street in downtown Dayton.  Please note that the owners and staff at Yellow Cab care deeply about the health of our community, and require all visitors to wear a mask.  If you do not wear a mask, they will kindly ask you to leave.  Yellow Cab also has social distancing guidelines in place.  If you wish to know more about the precautions they are taking and how you can cooperate, please give them a call.  

Why?

There are those who think that music doesn't need a reason, because "l'art pour l'art", right?  I haven't thought about that particular worldview all that much.  I certainly have my reasons for making art.  

Songwriting is how I deal with stress and anxiety and depression.  Songwriting helps me to work through all sorts of emotional turmoil, and the catharsis that it provides is probably a net benefit to my mental health.  Songwriting is a way for me to say what I want or need to say, especially when nobody is listening.  Not all of those songs get recorded as demos at home, and even fewer of them make it all the way to the studio... but some of them do, and this is what  happens when they do.

I still believe in the idea of the album as an art form. That's not popular these days, as music is seen as a resource, a commodity, a value-less product, both by the companies who use it to make profit, and by the vast majority of music listeners.  I don't make pop music, so of course, I'm not making music for these people.  I make music first of all for me, because it's something I'm driven to do... and all of you other musicians out there, I see you nodding along.  Of course, I wish to share my art... well, the subset of it that I get around to thinking is of enough quality to warrant sharing... but if I write something I don't personally like, you won't be hearing it.  I won't write in a genre or in a certain way because it's popular, because I'm trying to get rich, or because I think it's what someone wants to hear.  You'll only be getting authenticity from me, thank you very much.

The above said, music is also a means of communication.  Thoughts, feelings, ideas, the concrete, the abstract, and just about everyone wishes to be heard, yes?  Maybe music is kind of a cry for help?  Tell you what, as soon as I get a therapist, I'll be sure to discuss this with them.

How?

You know, ever since I was a teenager, if I see that particular word all on it's own, I can't help but sing it.  I mean, I sing it inside my own head where nobody is listening, but it has to be sung.  How, you said you never would leave me alone....

So, how did this happen?  Lots of hard work.  I'm not exactly a gifted musician or songwriter, but I work at it, and I have some perfectionist tendencies, which means lots of editing and re-writing. A great deal of singing practice.  A great deal of singing the same parts over and over again, until Patrick would tell me that it's no longer pitchy.  All sorts of patience from Patrick Himes and the musicians who agreed to play for me.  Even more patience from my wife when I would be in the studio for long hours and obsess over details in mixes at home.

How? Time. Pain. Self-Doubt. Frustration. Tears. Stress. Study. Thought. Experimentation. Explanation. Sleeplessness. 

Anxious Inventions & Fictions is my best work.  That's what I think, anyway.  I hope you think so, too.

Making an album is a long journey.  The time spent writing and re-writing, then re-writing again at home.  The arranging, which often requires another re-write.  The demos.  The gathering in the studio to discuss and plan.  Session after session after session with a whole bunch of really talented people.  Take after take after take of singing, repeating the process if you're a little sharp or a little flat.  The listening to studio bounces over and over and over and over.  The mixing.  That's my process and my journey at least.  Many musicians probably have it easier.  For me, it's a long journey, and it's hard work, and I wouldn't be able to do it without the help of a great many people.

I'd like to celebrate a little more than a year spent working on Anxious Inventions & Fictions by means of a photo blog entry.   

Let's begin:

This is engineer extraordinaire Patrick Himes adjusting the boom for Eric Cassidy on June 2, 2019.  Eric sang harmonies on "Bright Ideas".  Ultimately, that song didn't make it to Anxious Inventions & Fictions, but it is out right now as a stand-alone single.  Please click here to listen to it.

Here's Eric Cassidy again, this time holding an accordion.  He played this on June 30, 2019, during the outro on "Pauline".  You can hear this song on Defacing the Moon, as the songs from that album were chosen from these sessions.

This is Dustin Booher, with me on June 29,2019.  He is a fellow Xenian, and we have known each other since we were five years old.  He sang on "Sunday (That Pill)", which is on Defacing the Moon.  He also lent outstanding vocals to "Never Let Go", which is the 4th song on Anxious Inventions & Fictions.

There is Dustin in the background... and here is Tim Pritchard on July 27, 2019, playing guitar.  You can hear his fine work on "I Am a Number" and "Promise".

This is Jackie and Brandon, who are half of Westerly Station. I met them in Austin at the CD Baby DIY Musician Conference.  (I wrote about that before.)  Brandon is a fellow Ohioan, and we even grew up in the same county.  It was quite convenient that they came from their Texas home to Ohio when I was in the studio, and they had the time to stop by.  Brandon played mandolin on "Sunday (That Pill)", and it sounds great.  

Hello there, Ken Hall.  Normally, you can find him seated behind a piano, a task he performs in Shrug and Human Cannonball.  I invited him to play a little trombone.  You can hear Ken play for about a second and a half on "Your Anthem", which is the first track on Anxious Inventions & Fictions.

This handsome fella is Kent Montgomery.  He is the lead guitarist from The New Old Fashioned.   He was kind enough to play guitar on "Never Let Go", "Won't Love You Anymore", "Run To You", and "Wapakoneta".  That last song didn't make the album, but I will release it at some point.  

Here I am with Nathan Peters, who I've known over 20 years.  You might recognize him as the lead singer and keyboardist from legendary Dayton band Captain of Industry.  These days, he fronts Lioness.  He was kind enough to come to the studio and play piano on "Goodbye".  I wrote the song on piano, but I don't have the chops to give it the recorded performance that it deserves.  Thanks to Nathan's work, it sounds so very good.

The most recent photo.  January 23, 2020.  As you can see from the wood floors and the walls, this photo was taken after the great Reel Love flood and subsequent remodel.  (Scroll up to the first picture for the old school look of the main room in the studio.)  This was my last day in the studio for work on the album.  There was a mixing session after this, so the official end date was in February, but I didn't need to head down for that.  Patrick's steady hand guided me through this process, as he has done so many times for so many other musicians.  He has a fantastic ability to hear the song behind my low-quality home demos.  I can tell him what I am trying to accomplish as far as the sound I hear in my head is concerned, and he can figure out how to get me there.  This gentleman is a multi-instrumentalist, great singer, and true professional.  

I hope you have enjoyed this brief photo journey through a year's worth of work.  There are plenty of behind-the-scenes photos that I haven't even seen.  I have 5 disposable cameras that came to the studio with me, and they are filled with photos.  If you are curious as to what might be on them, they are available as one of the rewards on my Kickstarter campaign to crowdfund pressing Anxious Inventions & Fictions to vinyl.  Why not head over to the campaign and help me press some vinyl?