Album Notes

“Eschaton” started out as a way of talking about the end of the world, Eschatology being the branch of theology concerned with the return of Jesus Christ at onset of the apocalypse.

But then I met Asher Weiss.

I was living in Princeton, NJ, managing a women’s clothing store, and Asher’s sister Ruth was one of my employees. Asher was this jazz and folk kid playing in an Emo band. I was singing for Revelation Monkey. Not only did he dig my tunes, but we kind of developed an asexual man-crush on each other. So Eschaton became the name of the game when Asher and I both moved to New York City.

We met Carl Basler, a blues/rock/jazz guitar prodigy from Houston. Since that time, I’ve come to realize that Carl and I are what you might call musical soul-mates, but at the time I was just trying to figure out why he was bothering with us. Carl lived in Williamsburg and I was afraid that he might be a pretentious hipster, but when I heard him play the intro to Van Halen’s “5150” flawlessly, I felt suitably reassured.

Bass players came and went, as they are known to do. A great guy by the name of Russell Bonifede played with us for over a year. A french horn student at the Manhattan School of Music, Russell was unfortunately out of the country when we recorded the Eschaton CD. But Carl and Brandon did a great job with Russell’s bass lines on the recordings.

Asher’s youngest sister Abby started dated this kid name Jesse Maynard. Jesse was a phenomenal drummer whose experience was mainly in hardcore and punk. In exchange for not beating his ass, Asher forced Jesse to join our band. Jesse loved The Who, which made me realize why he was making music with someone old enough to be his father.

I approached my brother-in-law, Brandon Flatley, about producing an Eschaton CD. In many ways, Eschaton was what Brandon and I had envisioned for our previous project, Dharla...a musical collective of top-tier musicians who could highlight and bring to life my songs through Brandon's unique gifts as both producer and sound engineer.

I am very proud of the Eschaton CD. For me it represents the place where “song-based” indie rock meets the bravado and bombast of classic and arena rock. Despite the fact that so much of my back-catalog could be characterized as acoustic, mellow, singer-songwriter pop, I’ve always loved hard rock and heavy metal. Doing this album gave me a chance to scream over loud guitars and heavy drums. The pop stuff is still in there (check “Light On Me” and “Be”). But this is essentially a good old-fashioned rock-n-roll record…a love letter to my favorites growing up; KISS, Zeppelin, U2, Aerosmith, etc.

Put it in. Turn it up loud. Enjoy!

- Billy Webster
Brooklyn, March ‘07


The Band:
Billy Webster – Vocals
Carl Basler – Guitar, Bass
Brandon Flatley – Bass, Keyboards, Drums
Asher Weiss – Guitar
Jesse Maynard – Drums

www.myspace.com/billysongs
www.myspace.com/eschaton
www.billysongs.com

Contact:
billysongs@gmail.com

All songs written by Billy Webster except:
"Father Britney" written by Asher Weiss & Billy Webster
"I Am" written by Asher Weiss, Billy Webster & Carl Basler
Shampoo Girl Music, ASCAP 2006, 2007.

Produced by Brandon Flatley
Mixed by Brandon, Billy, & Carl