Illinois Entertainer June 2024 | 页面 8

Jon

IE : Along with the tour , you and The Band Geeks are working on an album together . Can you tell me a bit about that ? When did you start working on the album ? JA : Around November , about a month after the tour , I rang up Richie and said , “ Why don ' t we do an album together ? I ' ll send you
Interestingly , I haven ' t spoken about this yet , but there ' s sort of a theme to all the songs . That is , we need to rebuild the Garden of Eden on this planet Earth . There ’ s one song specifically called “ Once Upon a Dream ” that ’ s about how we used to believe in life and nature . Now , there ’ s a feeling that if we don ' t wake up , we ' re going to destroy Mother Earth . We ' re slowly watching it unfold on CNN and all the news networks and everything . Who would have thought that Russia would invade Ukraine ? Six months ago , you thought , no , it ' s not going to happen . They ' re just bluffing ; they weren ’ t . So , the songs are a little bit about universal love . We ' ve got to remember there ' s a love we all have deep within us . We ' re all the same , you see , because we are everyone . Everyone , from babies to old people , is God ' s beautiful soul
YES , circa 1983
some songs . I have about four or five songs I really like . I think the band would really perform them well .” He said , “ Jon , what are you doing to me ?!” [ Laughs ] So , from November 2023 to February 2024 , we made the album , which is called True . He wrote a couple of songs , and I added to them , and vice versa . I ' d send him a song , and he would add stuff . He would add incredible music to one or two songs that I ' d had for many years .
creatures known as human beings . The album is about being true to yourself and knowing that what you put in , you get out of it .
IE : That ’ s very true . When you started working on the album , did you go in with the theme in mind , or did it come up as you were writing ? JA : These songs came over the past few years , but lyrically , I think I was destined to sing
about a new world . Everybody dreams about it a lot . Everybody wakes up hoping today we will have peace on earth . Today we will start taking care of the trees and taking care of the flowers and the birds and the bees . I know it sounds corny , but if we don ' t take care of them , we ' re doomed . So that ' s a small pocket of ideas that I ' ve been thinking about . Sorry , I got carried away a bit [ laughs ].
IE : No , this is great ! I wanted to dig into the album . Taking it back to remembering
unity , peace , and loving one another – it sounds cliché , but it really isn ’ t . It ' s important . As you said , we ' re seeing these things unfold and crumble before us . It makes you think how much more is going to get destroyed before we realize we need to change how we go about the world and how we treat other people ? JA : Very true . That ' s why the album is called True [ laughs ]. It ’ s a Rastafarian expression . They always say they ' re true about everything . I ' d spend time in Barbados on and off
8 illinoisentertainer . com june 2024