Upon encountering the album titled “… steppin’ out!” momentarily, I entertained the notion that Arthur Alexander might be proclaiming his retirement. Thankfully, this assumption proved to be incorrect. Such a scenario would have been quite perplexing, especially considering the robust energy and compelling vigor of the new songs. The lyrics, brimming with a cheeky audacity, contribute to the album’s remarkable essence. One could almost interpret this collection as an intentional statement, perhaps even a masterclass in the realm of Power Pop.

Did you know you were in great shape when you made the album?

Thank you! Well, I guess it was a ‘statement’…

“I’m here!… again!” 

“One Bar Left”, my first solo album came out in 2018, it was time… and I had the goods. As the work progressed it became clear to me that as varied in styles and sounds as “One Bar Left” was, this one was REALLY all over the place musically! At first, I was a little worried, but when I listened to it in its entirety I really loved the fact that it WAS all over the place, songs literally jumping from one sonic soundscape and music era to another!

So yeah, it became a statement of sorts – I love all kinds of stuff and I’m not gonna conform myself to someone’s idea of ‘consistency’. And as the songs started to emerge, one by one, yeah, I knew this was gonna be rather special!

As for the ‘Power Pop master class’?

At the risk of sounding full of myself, I have impossibly high standards for songwriting and record production. When it comes to making a record, there is no such thing as a “filler track” in my book. I have to feel every song that goes on the record is a ‘single’, or it doesn’t make the cut. The same goes for production. I know what I hear in my head and to quote Dylan: “I have headful of ideas that are driving me insane”!

I do whatever it takes to achieve that as an end result. That’s my approach whether I produce myself or other artists.

(She’s A) Red Hot Lover has a wonderful Pet Shop Boy-esque intro. How did that come about? …

Oh man, how cool you picked up on that!

During the 80s there was precious little musically that was of any interest to me, Pet Shop Boys being a notable exception. I loved their records! Great songs; wonderful, memorable melodies, full of hooks, and though I was never big on synth-based sound, theirs was beautifully done; skillful and well-constructed arrangements. And then, when they got Dusty Springfield into the mix?… Ohmygod!… I was TOAST!… I had such a crush on Dusty! LOL

It all also corresponded to the time when I disbanded my band Sorrows and was trying to figure out what to do next. I bought a synth and a drum machine and started tinkering with that. I didn’t know what the hell I was doing with that stuff, so everything I came up with was a bunch of ‘happy accidents’. But some of those accidents became the fuse that lit some of my songs down the line, “(She’s A) Red Hot Lover” being one of them.

For some reason, the synth as a lead instrument really gets on my nerves, but one of the things I was really attracted to about synths was the ability to create orchestral textures and musical pads. I guess, that goes back to me having grown up on classical music in my parents’ house. I also love film music, like Ennio Morricone and Nino Rota, so the sounds these strange boxes could make were really fascinating to me.

Fun fact, and you can hear it on “(She’s A) Red Hot Lover” and “A Little Too Much” tracks on this album. Both prominently feature these arpeggiated “disco” bass lines (I probably stole the idea from Pet Shop Boys or Gorgio Moroder! ). The only problem? My little synthesizer didn’t have a built-in sequencer nor did I have a computer or knew jack shit about MIDI to be able to program those lines. My keyboard-playing skills leave a LOT to be desired, so it was quite a job to get it right! What you hear is me – “the human sequencer machine” – banging those parts out with two fingers, in real time! It took a few tries… but I got it! A lot of sweat went into it… SO I REALLY APPRECIATE YOU LIKING THE SONG! LOL

“… steppin’ out!” is now a few weeks old. Are you happy with how the album has been received so far?

Considering the fantastic reception “One Bar Left” received when it came out, I admit, I was a bit anxious leading up to this release! I set the bar for myself pretty high with “One Bar Left”, but I have to say, I’m quite blown away at how “… steppin’ out!” took off right out of the gate!

The funniest (and VERY gratifying!) thing about it? Not only is it getting rave reviews and being played by radio stations all over the world, from Europe, to the US, to Australia, but the DJs are not just sticking to the tracks the record label slated for a Single. They’ve been playing, literally, every freakin’ track off the album!

It reminds me of the time when Sorrows got signed to CBS Records and their bigwigs asked us about our ideas for the album we were about to make. I told them: “We don’t want you to have to struggle trying to find that one song that could be a single off the album. We’ll give you 12 singles and let you sit in your A&R meeting, pulling your hair out trying to pick which one should be the single!” Stuck up young lads we were, eh?!

The album seems to have been made by a band that has been playing together for years. Do you consider that a great compliment?

YES, I do! Can’t think of a bigger compliment! I do have a great band, all seasoned pros, but this was a ‘pandemic album” and, like everybody else in the world at that time, we had to scramble and invent how to get things done in ways we never had to before. I was seriously worried that it may end up sounding like a patchwork and was keeping a watchful eye on the vibe of the tracks, making sure nothing sounded “phoned-in” and that band spirit was in focus at all times.

13 songs/51 minutes while you increasingly see bands releasing separate singles or EPs. It had to be a full-fledged banger?

In a word? YES!

Yeah, I’ve been hearing this for the longest: “Forget the albums, you gotta come out with a single every 15 minutes so you keep your fans engaged!”… and that’s definitely doable with today’s technology.

The result?… 300,000 songs come out every day from as many bathrooms and bedrooms. Sure, it’s certainly “empowering” and “evens out the playing field”, but most of it is total crap, and now you gotta try and sift through all that sea of noise to find something worth listening to!

Nahhh… as I like to say, if I wanted to write songs like that I could record 365 albums a year and put out a single every Tuesday… and maybe Thursday too?!

I hear music business “insiders” bloviate how doing that makes more business sense in today’s music market landscape than releasing albums.

Yeah, maybe that works for Beyoncé or some Hip Hop artists?… They also got 25 writers credited on every damn song; 40 producers spitting that shit out of their computers faster than a car factory assembly line, and a million-dollar marketing machine behind it all to shove it down your throat.

Back in the day, putting out a Single, or EP, was an ‘event’! These releases really stood out and people had TIME to take note of them.

These days, with the glut and a literal avalanche of music we’re confronted with on a daily basis that precious-all-important Single is just another bleep in the maze we all live in that is Internet. You blink and you missed it.

Did you start from scratch or when you start a new album, do you dig into a ton of ideas collected over the years?

It’s a mix of both. I do have a “vault” spanning years of writing and song ideas; a 3-ring binder with some lyrics or just scraps of lyric ideas, or musical ideas I recorded on my phone, or just something I’ve been carrying in my head, often for years!… all this along the new songs that are coming to me all the time. Most of it ends up in the trash can (see above, about the 365 albums a year! )

Early on, I remember something I once read about Lennon and McCartney talking about how they wrote songs that really clicked with me. They said that since they couldn’t write music they had to memorize it and if they wrote something and couldn’t remember it the next day, it probably wasn’t worth remembering.

Yup, that’s my school of thought! LOL

The album title could hint at an end of a career or should I read ‘…steppin’ out!’ differently?

VERY differently! This boy is just getting started!