John Nolan - Sad, Strange, Beautiful Dream (2015)

For the past couple of years, between touring and recording with Taking Back Sunday I’ve been writing and demoing songs for a second solo record. Throughout this process I’ve worked with some great musicians who I’m lucky enough to call friends. Mike Strandberg, who plays with Kevin Devine’s band has played guitar. Brian Bonz, a great singer songwriter has sang backing vocals. I’ve recorded some songs with Dylan Ebrahimian, who plays violin with Gabriel The Marine. I’ve also been working with Benjamin Homola, drummer for Dashboard Confessional and Bad Books. My wife Camille, who’s worked with me since I released my first solo album has played piano. We’ve been doing all this with producer Mike Sapone. If you’re not familiar with him, he’s worked with Straylight Run, Taking Back Sunday and Brand New and he’s amazing.

As these new songs have come together a new sound has started to take shape. Part of it is the kind of songs I’m writing and part of it is the direction things go with this group of people. It’s not quite like anything else I’ve ever done and it’s really exciting. After recording a few songs, I knew that this whole record had to be done with this group at Sapone’s studio. I approached some record labels hoping that they’d see the value in doing the album this way but I wasn’t able to find one who shared my vision. It’s expensive to do an album at a producer’s studio with live musicians and that was their main concern. I had to make the record I wanted to though so I started looking into alternatives. When I found PledgeMusic it felt like the right fit. They offer a way to cut out the middleman, make an album with and for the people who want to hear it and they give you a support system. Once I decided on PledgeMusic, I started talking to Mike Colleran at Collective Confusion Records. He’s done great work with me in the past pressing vinyl and he helped me put together a group of pre order packages that are unique and offer a lot of options. I am so unbelievably excited about everything we’re working on right now and I can’t wait to share it with you!