These pieces came out of the same batch of material that spawned Uniforms + Saints, and which also spanned the existence of Borrowed Time. While the tracks that wound up on the first solo album were kind of pop songs with a slightly experimental nature, this album was more deliberate, with avant garde leanings. I’m sure there’s a difference, but I’d be hard-pressed to tell you what it it is.

These are more serious songs, and serious themes – perhaps even a bit introspective, as the critics like to say. Whatever. I had been through a lot at this point, and I think it shows in the music. That is, I think you can hear it in the music. I don’t know if it can actually show you anything. And yes, I am wearing pants in that photograph.

Just to mix things up a bit for my second solo album, I sifted in a few of the very first 4-track pieces I recorded, from the pre-everything-that-happened-since era. A few of the more somber instrumental themes, and songs written along the way that reflected the rise and fall of my grandiose artistic and romantic fantasies come to life, over a few brief years that felt like a lifetime. I wouldn’t have thought about it in such concise terms at the time, but if Uniforms + Saints was all about beginnings, then Facades had a lot more to do with endings.

National Anthem was really sort of a tongue-in-cheek twist on the well-known Hendrix performance from Woodstock. Thinking about the wild-eyed hopes and dreams of that generation, juxtaposed against a nationalistic theme cribbed from a old pub drinking tune no less, it seemed appropriate that it should come across as both tentative and slightly menacing.

Legacy was a slightly re-worked version of a song I had written during the Reagan era, and performed in The Hytones; a sort of anthemic militant nursery rhyme, with a nod to Kill Your Sons by Lou Reed.

Moments Turned To Sand was just another take on combining a basic Eastern melodic motif with a Western rhythmic nuance – all the kids were doing it, and it was especially popular with fans of The Cure.

Those three pieces were the remains of my earliest excursions into 4-track technology, recorded between 1982-1983. All of the other material was completed towards the end of 1984, and early 1985, shortly before I moved from Minneapolis to NYC.

The title track, Facades, was my own musical nod to various nuances I heard in the music of both The Only Ones and Alex Chilton. I can’t say it wasn’t about any particular situation, but I didn’t really have any one thing in mind when I put it together, other than the desire to create a good song.

The Sitting Room was a one-off, something I threw together pretty quickly with a miniature Casio keyboard, in an attempt to emulate a small chamber group of some sort. Not for classical purists.

Nation Of One was the swan song for this era of material, a re-worked version of an instrumental which appeared on the first album, inspired by dreams of a new life that loomed ahead.

FACADES

[Sorry – these audio recordings were hosted on soundcloud, but that account is now closed.
I’ll figure out a different way to host it soon!]

technical errata:

Melne Murphy contributes lead guitar on Legacy and Moments Turned to Sand,
and also programmed the drum machine on Legacy.

All other instruments and vocals by J. Free.

Originally recorded on Dokoder and Tascam reel-to-reel 4-track decks, between 1982 and 1985.

This transfer was made in 2010, using a Nakamichi deck which was re-calibrated by Echo Audio in Portland, OR. This was an azimuth-optimized analog-digital transfer [24-bit/96kHz sample rate] from a first-generation master cassette. Tracks were split in CDWav editor; any other post-processing was done using SoundForge. Digitally pitch-corrected by ear (using SoundForge), to a digitally-tuned acoustic guitar. This 256kbps .mpeg conversion was direct from the 24/96 .wav files – no down-sampling or bit-rate conversion was applied. Additional mixing, minor editing and treatments were applied by J. in 2010.

There is tape hiss present. But then again, you’re listening to a bunch of .mp3s.

all tracks: © J. Free; 1982 – 1985