It may seem a bit strange to do a Story Behind the Album for an album that very few people ever heard and which I have no intention of ever re-releasing in full. But since I’m preparing to release a series of archival albums that will include songs from this and other out-of-circulation albums, I figured it might be good to provide some context.
I was drawn to songwriting almost as soon as I learned how to properly play an instrument. But it took me a while to actually completely write a song. I could write words, and could hear music in my head, but translating that to the real world I found very difficult. The band I was in, Fantasy, had “band songs” based on jams, but sitting down and writing a song was a different matter. I was a senior in high school before I (and my friend Dwayne) actually managed to finish a song…sort of. It would be tweaked for a while before reaching its final state.
At the same time, I was fascinated by the recording process. I had witnessed a local band record a demo on a 4-track cassette recorder and it sounded pretty impressive to me. I had also read a lot of books referring to the Beatles’ innovative recording techniques. So I saved up money from a summer job between college semesters and bought a cheap 4-track recorder. I recorded some cover versions of acoustic songs like “Dust in the Wind” and “Blackbird” just to learn a bit about the process. The next summer I saved up and bought a drum machine, and recorded some more covers with drums, like “Rock and Roll” and “Not Fade Away.”
Meanwhile, I kept trying to write songs. I began building a library of riffs and other ideas, and slowly I began assembling those into songs. I eventually had a handful that I deemed good enough to try to record. I had been reading books about songwriting, arranging, and recording, and that research was bearing fruit. So I borrowed some equipment and instruments from my friends and started to work.
The initial sessions yielded “Throughout Time”, “Rain”, “Let Go”, “Worlds in Collision”, “We Melt Away”, “Anti-Gravity”, and “Chase the Sun”. I only was able to borrow a bass for a short time, so only “Rain” had bass; I used a keyboard for the bass part on everything else, a practice that would continue through the next album.
And I was now indeed thinking in terms of an album. Which meant I had to write more songs. Somehow this was accomplished, though in retrospect I would consider most of these songs to be throwaways. But I ended up recording thirteen of them, enough to complete this first album.
I decided to call it Anti-Gravity after the slight instrumental track, and designed a cassette-sized cover for it on my Commodore 64 computer. On this cover I established the precedent of calling my “studio” Van Hearlen Studio, a practice I continue to the present day, just incrementing the number of the studio every time I move. The album looked and sounded homemade, but I felt a great sense of accomplishment for having written, arranged, and recorded a whole album by myself.
I passed around a few copies to friends. The album got some praise and some pans, but overall the words were kind, and I was encouraged to write and record more…
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