A fixture on the Los Angeles indie scene for more than three decades, David Steinhart spent the past 10 years making sophisticated, stripped-down folk pop with the Furious Seasons. Two acoustic guitars, an upright bass and two-part harmonies.
“It was very spartan, particularly for the live shows,” he says. “We decided to take a break for a while, maybe longer.”
Meanwhile, Steinhart immersed himself in the ’80s. “I’d been listening to Prefab Sprout, the Blue Nile and one of my very favorite albums, Elvis Costello’s Imperial Bedroom,” he says. “When I started writing songs, they came out sounding more like these artists and more like my earlier bands, Smart Brown Handbag and Pop Art.”
For Released, his first solo release in almost a quarter century, Steinhart turned to Grammy-winning engineer and producer Alfonso Rodenas. The two friends assembled a studio band that capitalized on the talents of seasoned session keyboardist Will Gramling. “He played a ton of great parts, and a lot of them made it on the final mix, including the synth sounds,” says Steinhart.
The melody for “Did You Say The Words?” came to Steinhart while he was driving. “I’d been listening to the album Burt Bacharach and Elvis Costello made together about 15 years ago (Painted From Memory) and thinking about how the vocal melodies resembled horn parts,” he says.
That minor revelation inspired much of the writing on Released. “It informed my vocal approach to the songs,” he says. “As for the lyric, I was kind of turning the classic ‘you broke my heart’ song on its head. The first two verses are brittle and a bit accusatory. In the third, he realizes his actions are the big contributor to the problems in the relationship—and that his partner just wants some easy time together.”
Released is due January 10 on Steinhart’s Stonegarden label. We’re proud to premiere “Did You Say The Words?”
—Hobart Rowland
