What's the story behind Tulips?
It ties into the Jacco era. Trouble in Mind Records released both our debut albums on the same day. We played some shows together and became buddies. He was touring the U.S., wanted a keyboard player, and asked me to play the tour. That turned into me continuing with Jacco's band and moving to Holland for five years. The original idea was, "I'll go to Holland and I'll make a record. I'll have completely different gear, I'll be in a different place, and be around different people. Whatever I make, I'll release it as a Dutch album." I recorded in Holland between tours and finished it in L.A.
The album is instrumental, with the exception of non-lyric background vocals. Was this by design?
I had this urge to do everything differently than my first record, Shadows, which was mostly a vocal pop album. The idea was to change literally everything about my process and see what was left in order to quantify what was "me" about it.
There are evocative titles like, "New Danger" and "Chase Theme No. 1." Did you intend to make a "soundtrack-esque" album?
That wasn't my thought as I was doing it; it was just my palette at the time. I was exploring a lot of library and soundtrack music on tour with the guys in the van. Composers like Ennio Morricone and Piero Umiliani. I thought of a lot of titles when I saved the demo session. It can't be "Untitled #200" or something!
A variety of instruments create the grooves and give voice to the motifs on Tulips. Did you play them all?
Nic Mauskovic, from Jacco's band, played drums on "Swans" and "Turning In." The rest of it I played myself.
What do you consider your main instrument?
These days it's keyboard. I feel equally comfortable on guitar, but I've ended up playing keyboard live in the last five years. I mostly write on the keyboard, too.
