Thanks to my cuz!

When my cousin, the actor Alon Aboutboul, visited my studio in early January, I played some of the works in progress for the new album. One of the songs really caught his attention.

I love a good ¾ time signature, which is the roadmap I’d set for myself in starting to construct “Recover”. The music I’d written started lending itself to a more personal, introspective lyrical narrative. I wrote about my efforts to understand and to assist a family member experiencing mental health issues which I knew was impeding their ability to fully and vibrantly function in our society.

Alon asked the hard questions of me - who is this person, what is their story, what are they really going through etc., and convinced me to turn the focus of the song onto the person struggling with the issue, as opposed to my frustration at not being able to help them. So, for example, the lyric lines “You will try to recover” and “When you try to remember” became “ When I try to recover” and “I will always remember” etc. I think that changing the song from the third to the first person would make it a more intimate, visceral experience for the listener - and an expression that was far more relatable if the listener identified with any of the conditions the lyrics expressed.

After finalizing the arrangement and instrument recordings (“Recover” marks the first song in which I ever played and recorded drums with brushes!), I worked with Anneke to realize the optimal vocal performance. We went through a few remote sessions (she lives in The Netherlands) over the course of a month, and the end product was a beautiful and powerful performance that embodied the overall arc and nuance of the lyrics. Ariel Mann then embellished some of my recorded guitar parts, and Kfir Melamed performed a tasteful electric bass part.

Andy Carpenter and I mixed the song over two days, and I spent an additional day really dialing in the sonic landscape the song seemed to be directing me to create. The final mix survived several days of listening and scrutiny, enough to be able to happily commit it for a single release. I’ll be happy to invite Alon back to the studio to listen to the master, and thank him for his invaluable creative input integral to this song’s creation.