All The Goods is happy to have the occasion to chat with the multi-talented David Tolar just as his new album has released. Oh, wait a sec, this is not actually a new album persay...it's more like a 're-imagining' of a work of art that has come before...1987 to be exact.
Back in 1987, David sat down and decided that he would go ahead and create a solo work. He didn't have a recording contract then. Copying CDs and using downloads were worlds away at that point in time. David, instead, shared his talent in a different way via cassette tapes. He shared a good portion of these with friends. All The Goods has a copy of this tape somewhere so we are familiar with the material presented on this album. Still, however, it's been a good many years since we've sat down to listen to it. With this re-magined version, we've really been lucky enough to listen deeply and intensely this go-round and we love what we hear.
First a bit of background...David Tolar began his singing career at a campground in New Hampshire at age five where he sang about a dog with a fat belly (true story.) He played the trumpet as a youngster and then got his first guitar at age eighteen. David's parents gifted him with a Yamaha FG-331 Acoustic which he still owns to this day. He's written well over one hundred songs, beginning shortly after getting his first guitar.
Here is a partial list of work that he's done in the past...Split Second 'There You Have It' 1998; Savior Faire (Demos produced by Bob St. John) 1992; No Man's Land 'Alternatives to Violence' compilation 1995; Daniel's Dream 'Dear Life' 1998; Big Blue Daddys 'Money Don't Beat The Blues' 1999; Agona Hardison 'CD Advance' 1998 aka 'Water In My Well' re-released 2010; Lisa Meri 'Time Will Tell' 1998; British Yankees; RAMM-The Paul McCartney Tribute; LOOK! A PONY 'and the rest of the world is wrong' 2010.
We were lucky enough to have a chat with David to speak about his new release 'The Path Of Least Resistance' and to get some insight into some of the songs on this album as well as his musical career at large.
ATG-How old were you when you first wrote the material for what would become 'The Path of Least Resistance'?
DT-The first song I wrote for the album was 'I Wanna Fly', when I was 19. The final song on the album was 'Pull The Plug!' at 26.
ATG-Was this the first album you ever recorded?
DT-In its original form, in 1987, yes, but the extent of the 'release' at that time was literally roughly 25 cassettes- that version of the album was never sold publicly. It isn't my first actual album release. I have actually been involved on a variety of albums, from my first two with LOOK! A PONY! to working with Agona Hardison, Lisa Meri, Split Second, No Man's Land, Daniel's Dream and the Big Blue Daddys. The 2012 version of 'The Path Of Least Resistance' is actually my first physical and digital release as a solo artist.
ATG-Who were your main influences for this album?
DT-At the time that I wrote the album, I was really learning my way around the various instruments and the technology to record the album. I wasn't really thinking about any specific artists or bands when I wrote the songs, but in hindsight, I think that I was subconciously grabbing little bits and pieces from my record collection, both past and present up until 1987, so there were certainly elements that are reminiscent of my love for British rock as well as folk, jazz and classsical music. From a lyrical standpoint, I was consciously trying to write in a variety of styles, from tone poems to short stories, to very direct and more simplified ideas. I wanted to create a storyline of sorts which would also be appreciated as individual songs.
ATG-This album was originally recorded on a 4-track TASCAM PortaStudio 246. What other work have you recorded using this?
DT-I recorded the majority of the LOOK! A PONY! album 'Has Your Mother Heard This?' on the same machine. We recorded that project from 1990 to 1992 and finally released that album on CD in 2012. In addition, there were a series of songs written on that machine which will be rerecorded in 2013 for my second solo album 'Sandbox Etiquette'...those songs were written from 1988 to 1996, but everything prior to 1995 was done originally on the TASCAM 246, before finally upgrading to the TASCAM 488 MK II PortaStudio which had 8 tracks as opposed to 4.
ATG-What year did you graduate to using Pro Tools to work on your music? We're sure that there is a substantial difference recording with Pro Tools as opposed to your older TASCAM system; you were probably like a kid in a candy store with all this new technology.
DT-I was highly resistant to recording digitally, even though I had done so with other artists in various studio settings. In 2009, I jumped into the digital world via Pro Tools and found the transition to be nothing short of remarkable. It took me a good six months to start to become comfortable with what could be done, but once I figured out how to take my analogue masters and convert them to Pro Tools, putting that first LOOK! A PONY! album together really took shape, and we released 'and the rest of the world is wrong' in 2010, roughly 18 months after the project started. My Pro Tools gear is very utilitarian compared to other project studios, but I get every last sonic morsel that I can out of it. If anything, the temptation to go 'too far' with the technology is a siren's song of its own. It's really easy to end up with dozens of tracks using Pro Tools. The trick is to figure out when to stop!
ATG-The new version of 'The Path Of Least Resistance' is a 're-imagining' of a recording that had originally been 'released' in 1987. Did you ever imagine in 2012 that you'd ever revisit this material in any form? What led you to redo this album as it were? How much deviation did you do from the original recordings?
DT-When I sent my friends the original cassette of the album, I had dreams of maybe someone eventually signing me to a songwriting deal or even a record deal. Keep in mind this was years before the internet made being an independent artist a global possibility. Without a budget though, I put the idea to rest and moved on to my next writing project. Revisiting the original masters in 2012 was so much fun, I thought to myself 'wouldn't it be cool to release this?' So I put together a reference CD to listen to in the car from that 1987 material and was stunned as to how well it still worked. I had not listened to those songs from front to back in over 20 years. I also immediately realized that trying to remaster those original recordngs was going to take a great deal of time.
One night, I remember grabbing an acoustic guitar and randomly singing 'I Wanna Fly' to myself. I plugged the guitar into Pro Tools and just strummed for fun. After playing it back, I put down another guitar track and another and three months later, the rerecording was done and mixed. It was genuinely that simple. Once I put the acoustic parts down, it was at that point that I had to decide as to whether I would try to replicate it as closely as I could what had been done in 1987 or go for completely different sonic landscapes and really re-imagine everything. Listening to the 2012 version, I think I split the difference. The percussion elements would never have happened in 1987 the way that they do now and I play the various instruments a great deal more proficiently than I did at the time. The vocal parts were based on what had been done originally but I believe that I can do more vocally now than I could then and the vocals on the 2012 version reflect that as well.
ATG-How did you come to name this album 'The Path Of Least Resistance'?
DT-The inspiration for the album title was Robert Frost's poem 'The Road Not Taken'. As someone who was contemplating so much as a young adult, I was very aware of the idea that the decisions that I was making would have consequences that went beyond the spur of the moment and thinking along those lines, I imagined standing in the woods and having to make a choice as to which way to go in life, without compromising who I was or what I wanted to accomplish. That metaphor became the basis for both the album title and the connected storyline that accompanies the album.
ATG-'I Wanna Fly' is the first cut on the album and it starts off strong. This is an upbeat happy song and we especially love the '1-2-3-4' in the intro as well as the multi-layered guitar playing. We feel partial to this song because it has personal meaning to us as it sums up where we are in our life at this point in time. Did you ever imagine that this song would move people in such a manner?
DT-'I Wanna Fly' is a happy little ditty musically which is contrasted by more than a hint of self-doubt, curiosity and fear. The song came from a variety of different places, everywhere from high school observations of behaviours I didn't understand from being so incredibly naive, to the fear of never living life to its fullest. The reference to Icarus flying too close to the sun is very conscious and as an aside, when Iron Maiden released their song 'Flight of Icarus' years later, I said to myself 'Well, there you go-someone beat you to it!', even though the two songs could not possibly be more different. The first person that really liked the song was my late mum Ruth. i remember playing it through for her right after I had finished it and she loved it, as it reminded her of her frequent travels as a young lady. I didn't have the heart to tell her what it was really about. Many years later, just before she passed, she asked me to play the song at her funeral and through many tears, I did just that in 2008. I am hopeful that people will have their own reactions to the song and derive their own meanings from it but I can't get over how much the song has changed over the years...
ATG-'Easier Said Than Done' picks right up where 'I Wanna Fly' left off and keeps the fast pace going. To us, this sounds like a 'driving song'. In fact, as we listen, we can picture flying along country roads with the windows open. The lyrics remind us a bit of Neil Peart as they are thought-provoking like his are. What was on your mind when you wrote this song?
DT-To be mentioned in the same breath as Neil Peart is amazing to me-thank you! 'Easier Said Than Done' is a bit of a tone poem at its core and I wrote it during an overnight shift at a radio station where I was working at the time. I would get out of work and always drove home in that nether world between darkness and daylight and equated that feeling of neither being here nor there with that twilight. I wanted to write in a very 'stream of consciousness' fashion but when I looked at what I had written, I understood that for it to become a song, I would need something that rhymed and that's what the bridge section is. I'm not really sure there is a chorus on the song at all! The 2012 version of the song is actually three minutes shorter than the original and has three verses removed but I think the song is better for being editted down.
ATG-'Shadow Of One'-upon a deeper listen to the lyrics, it feels as if this song is the 'anthem for the introvert'. The words are something that is also relatable for so many people. We think this song taps right into those feelings quite well. How did you come to choose the lyrics for this song?
DT-'Shadow Of One' is a series of observations, written from the perspective of someone who does not want to follow the particular path that society is forcing upon them. Personally, I have always believed that following one's own path is the only way to find one's truest happiness. The notion of the 'shadow of one' is a metaphor for standing alone and celebrating one's individuality, principles and life. I love your title for the song but I think that it's an 'anthem for the iconoclast' at heart.
ATG-'Tilting At Windmills'-this one sounds like a sea shanty from days gone by. The concertina is a nice touch as well. As we listen to the lyrics, we get a sense of frustration in them. Perhaps frustration of love or life at the time. 'I feel like an island with a hole in the middle' is a verse that stands out to us. What was your thought process when you wrote this one?
DT-When I first wrote 'Tilting At Windmills', I had a waltz in mind and the timing of the song is in 3/4 waltz time. This is the only waltz I have ever written, by the way. From a musical standpoint, the original 1987 version was far simpler than the rerecorded one and this newer version has a variety of sounds that are somewhat different, specifically the accordian sample played on the piano and the vocal harmonies in the choruses, which were literally added in just before the song was finished being mixed. Lyrically, you are absolutely spot on with your assessment...this song is about the frustration in life of not being able to share yourselfwith someone the way you want to emotionally and the 'hole in the middle' was just the idea of feeling incomplete on some level due to someone else's lack of appreciation. 'Tilting At Windmills' is also an old English expression and I remember the phrase from the Don Quixote stories I read as a child.
ATG-'For Now And Always'-this song stands out as not only one of our personal favorites but one of the prettiest and most heartfelt ballads we've heard for some time. The song reminds us of 'A Gentleman's Excuse Me' by Fish with a liberal touch of Marillion's 'Lavender' thrown in for good measure. We noticed that in the last verses you added some French which fit the song to a T. We think that the message in this song is universal. What were your thoughts when you crafted this exquisite ballad?
DT-Stylistically, I wanted to create something very delicate with this song...some sort of a cross between an English folk ballad and a French romance. Whether that actually worked, I'm not sure! The lyric was inspired by a series of short stories and poetry that a very dear friend had given me and looking at life through the eyes of that 18 yr old young lady was a very unusual place to start creating a song but that's what happened. I found it very difficult to tell her how I felt and as the song says 'I can't tell you in English/I guess French will have to do' which worked out perfectly as a way of leading into the French verse of admiration that would have never rhymed in English. The 2012 version is far more of a complete idea than its 1987 predecessor but retains a great deal of the feel of the original, as much if not more so than any song on the album.
ATG-'Pull The Plug!'-this song is another standout for many reasons. It doesn't sound like anything else on the album and in this case, that's a good thing. We like the singing style including the falsetto at the beginning. The song is evocative of another time and place. It's scary when you realize that this song was created first in 1987 and the technology at that time was just beginning to get going and how incredibly far we've come. Did you ever imagine returning to this song again so many years later but with today's outlook and world view?
DT-I have never written a song anything remotely like 'Pull The Plug!' before or since and both this song and 'The Lonely Jester' were the only holdovers from the original 1987 recording. There was just no way of recreating either one, even with Pro Tools. When I dug out 'Pull The Plug!' after so many years, the first thing that hit me was that the song sounded like I was channeling Prince on some odd parallel universe kind of way but then listening to the words, I was struck by how prescient they were. The idea of 'space age technology or the world at the touch of a key' in 1987 were more science fiction than reality at the time. Looking at the song now, the sentiment I expressed then is still very similar. I'll always have an affinity for the artists who used their canvas, their paper and their minds to create their art, music and culture and the idea of technology usurping our own capabilities as people scared me then and on some level, it still does today. Had I rerecorded the song, I would have changed the lyrics and by putting out the original, I didn't have to alter the original idea at all. It still holds up as much as any song I've ever done.
ATG-So what's next on the agenda for you? What plans do you have for the future?
DT-I will be releasing my second solo album 'Sandbox Etiquette' in July 2013. Beyond that, I'm writing material with my wife for another album and am looking forward to working on more LOOK! A PONY! material in the future as well. Beyond that, it's anybody's guess!
ATG-If people are curious and want to learn more about you or 'The Path Of Least Resistance', where can they go?
DT-Feel free to visit my ReverbNation page at www.reverbnation.com/davidtolar and check out my Artist's Page on Facebook. You can also find my music online at iTunes, Amazon and other fine online retailers spanning the globe beginning sometime in January. In addition, I'm hoping to launch my new and improved website in the near future at www.davidtolar.com. I guess that's a wrap! Thanks, ATG!
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