WHAT IS A CONCEPT ALBUM ANYWAY?
John Shakespear, April 5, 2023.
New single "Borderline" out now, and new album coming on 5/17.
OK, let me get the big news out of the way: my second record, Hail Bohemia, is coming out on May 17, and another song from it has just come out today. That song is called “Borderline,” and my friend VQnC sings with me on it.
The thing about this new record
…is that it follows three characters from start to finish, telling an album-length story about their relationship. In times of yore, this was known as a “concept album,” but I would like to think my album is something else, because I (almost certainly unfairly) associate the phrase “concept album” with pretension and/or dragons. I briefly considered calling it a “story-album” or “novelistic album,” but the former is misleading and the latter is way more pretentious.
If you have suggestions for ways to avoid calling my concept album a concept album, please write to me. And if you would like a CD, digital copy, or shirt, you can preorder those things on Bandcamp or come get one at a show in the next couple of months.
For now, though, let me tell you about this new song, “Borderline”.
The thing about this new song
…is that I got my friend and former bandmate Tory, who performs and releases her own music as VQnC, to sing on it with me. It was special to make something with her again, both because she’s an amazing artist and person and because we played in a band together for years and experienced so many musical firsts together: first Boston shows, first tours, first time watching the sound guy literally fall asleep at the board at the Cantab, first time waking him up and making him dance, and so much more.
A little (more) backstory: in early 2014, I was getting together occasionally with my high school band mates Parker and Isaac to make music in the only place where we’d ever made music: the basement of Isaac’s childhood home. It was and probably still is an incredible basement, in which only some of the pipes hang low enough to hit a midsized adult on the head.
That winter, we were still running through some of my old songs from high school, which were mostly about the moon, the wide and noble western highway, or like, the Mystery of Love (should’ve left it to Sufjan). That was fine and all, but somehow, the band wasn’t feeling that inspired. So one day, Isaac invited a coworker of his to join us in the basement. That’s how I met Tory. Here is a photo taken on that day in 2014, where I seem preoccupied by the weird sweater-shirt combo I’m wearing.
Tory, on the other hand, has always known how to dress better than the rest of us; in fact, she is a vintage clothing curator and stylist. But what I’m trying to tell you right now is that something gelled very quickly that day — her voice brought everything together, clicking with the old-school funk bass lines Parker had mastered on his own time and Isaac’s drumming style. I remember us all looking at one another after the practice, stunned: all of a sudden, we had a band. I was so excited I hit my head on one of the pipes.
A lot of great things flowed from that day, and I won’t list them all in this email. But it was incredible to work on this song with Tory, and with my co-producer Devon Dawson. It’s one of my favorites I’ve ever made. It might even make you dance. I don’t know for sure, but you can go see for yourself.
More soon,
John
