CDr two-for-one reissue of Jeremy Gloff's first two albums "True Stories" and "Still Feel It"
STORY BEHIND TRUE STORIES:
TRUE STORIES was my very first album, recorded on 4-track in the bedroom of the house I grew up in. I remember at the time being so very proud of this album. It was such a thrill to go down to the copy store, photocopy the cassette covers, (CDS weren't really available to the underground for a few years yet...) and to buy those cheap-ass cassette tapes and high speed duplicate for hours on end. I had yet to come to terms with my sexuality, but in the lyrics to these songs I sent out the first hint to my friends that something queer was going on in Jeremy-villle. The big moment came at the end of the album, when I say "I wish he was here again." My friends were shocked when they heard this, and I did a quick cover-up job, saying it was only meant for a friend. Yea right, the friend in question was this guy I was totally in love with. Many of the themes I explored in my music over the following decade first make their appearance here: unrequited love from straight boys, guilt over being sexually active, and my tendency to obsess over unhealthy, destructive people. Looking back on it all I have written some of the most beautiful songs about people who treated me in a very ugly way. Sonically, I will admit that this album is somewhat of a tough listen. My vocals were very raw, and all I had for instrumentation was a cheap keyboard and drum machine. I think "I Wish You Were My Child" is a pretty obvious Madonna tribute, but lyrically and aesthetically I was very much inspired by Sinead O'Connor. I took the genuine, contemporary, naked emotion of Sinead's music as a challenege-I strove to write songs as soul-bearing and personal as hers. At the time, I couldn't believe I was actually releasing some of the stuff I was writing about. But this was only the starting point - throughout the next decade I would always try to expose and unearth what I was truly thinking and feeling via my song lyrics.
STORY BEHIND STILL FEEL IT:
STILL FEEL IT was recorded with the same very cheap equipment I used on TRUE STORIES. Musically, the biggest shift was the absence of drum machine and synthesizers. These songs were pared down to simple voice and keyboard arrangements. The average listener may find it hard to sit through this one - it's a very rough recording.
There were some pretty hectic things going on in my life; these songs told the stories. I'd been kicked out of my house and was sleeping on the floor of a friend's apartment. I had not admitted I was gay. I was living in small town New York and I could barely afford food. Thankfully some friends of mine worked at a donut shop and afterhours they fed me. My managers at Arby's were also very kind.
That summer I felt my life change forever. A good friend of mine drowned, I was in the throes of teenage heartbreak, and I was estranged from my family. Amongst the chaos were moments of spectacular youthful abandon that sometimes I'd give anything to recapture...or relive. STILL FEEL IT is a testament to the last summer of my teenaged life.
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