Melodic Power-Pop Songster Bares All :
A Glimpse into the Life of a Talented Independent Hopeful, Sean Altman

As a music reviewer, the highlights are times when you come across a new release that really surprises in the best of ways. Such is the case with the new CD from New York’s own Sean Altman, alt.mania, (for review click here) a veritable feast of melodic original songs and his first release with a full band accompanying him.

Sean started out his musical career at age 17, playing in a group called Moon Pudding with David Yazbek (The Full Monty). While at Brown University, Sean fronted a rock group called Blind Dates and also discovered the a capella scene in a quartet called High Jinx which later spawned Rockapella. Rockapella was the house-band for five years on TV’s “Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego?” and gained national recognition in Spike Lee’s PBS documentary Do It A Cappella. In 1997, Sean left the group he co-founded to pursue his quixotic dream of solo stardom. Recently, I had the good fortune to discuss that dream and more with Sean - I share it here with you:

GG: Congrats on the new CD. It’s truly some of the best stuff I’ve heard in years, very melodic and catchy.

SA: Thanks.

GG: One theory I have as to what makes your songs so varied and fresh are the number of different collaborators you have. On the new CD alone, you have songs co-written with Noel Cohen (“Unhappy Anniversary” & “If I Knew Then”), young singer-songerwriter Michelle Albano (“The Notion”), Moxy Fruvous’ Jian Ghomeshi (“Town No More”) and Andrew Chaikin (“Unworthy”). In the past you’ve also written with David Yazbek, your producer Billy Straus, Rob Tanenbaum, Patti Rothenberg and others. Talk to me about those pairings and how they developed.

SA: I met Noel through mutual friend and musician Ivy Markaity and Noel forced me into the discipline of songwriting. Noel is more of a writer than a performer and is very serious about it. Together we’ve written probably around 20 songs and the two on this CD just happened to work particularly well for me. Noel is a far better guitar player than I am, and typically when we get together to write, we’ll work off a riff idea of his or even just a song title, which I guess is a Nashville-type way of working, and was new for me. It’s split about even between lyrical and musical contributions, though he seems to come up with all sorts of interesting chord changes.

With the song “If I Knew Then” we first had written it in a sort of Bossa-Nova style, though we were after a sort of Roy Orbison vibe. When drummer Bob Golden came along, we presented the task of asking him to put a sort of Mavericks beat to what we already had. He did and it became the song you hear on the CD now.

Michelle Albano is sort of a “Mariah Carey meets Tori Amos” style singer/songwriter. She plays keyboards and is very good with melodies. We’ve got some other songs we’re writing as well. “The Notion” was written in one afternoon.

Nancy McGrath, who manages my website, was a big Moxy Fruvous fan and she was always telling me I had to check them out live. I have now, and honestly, they are one of the most entertaining live acts I’ve ever seen. But at one concert, she handed my first CD SeanDEMOnium to one of the band members. About three weeks later, Jian Ghomeshi emailed me, saying how much he loved my music. As a matter of total coincidence, I was about to go to Toronto to visit my girlfriend, so I arranged to meet him and we got together and wrote “Town No More.” We keep trying to get together to try to write more, but Jian’s busy being a celebrity. He’s hosting a new TV show in Canada and also has a solo CD coming out.

GG: Yeah, I saw he was touring recently with the Roche Sisters. What about Chaikin?

SA: Andrew Chaikin is this guy I know from the a capella community. He used to be in this band called The House Jacks from San Francisco. He also went to Brown University, but I didn’t know him from there (he’s much younger than I am). We actually approached him to be the “vocal percussionist” guy for Rockapella. He turned us down, but we kept in touch. “Unworthy” is the only song we’ve ever written together.

GG: And your other various collaborators?

SA: Patti Rothberg and I have been working a while on what we hope will become a “Duets” album together. Yazbek and I are talking about a possible project with me doing some standards, y’know, a sort of crooning CD, but right now I’m concentrating on the powerpop.

I’ve also been writing with some new collaborators. I’ve written some with Dana Calitri, who has penned successful commercial music for the likes of Jessica Simpson and N’Sync, and I have 3 new songs done with Victoria Shaw, who has had five #1 country hits.

GG: So you’ve been keeping busy. I couldn’t help but notice the large span of time between CD releases. I know it’s not for lack of material, because I’d wager you’ve easily got material enough for another double-CD and then some. Why did it take so long?

SA: Well, there are a lot of reasons why it took years. Some of it was cost-related, sure, and a lot had to do with my strategy of making a record of this quality. I was being a little bit of a perfectionist, and also trying to delay the inevitable deal of having to pay for it all myself. Two years ago I had all the basics done for about a third of the finished album, and I took those five or six songs around and shopped them to some labels in hopes of getting funding.

GG: How did that go?

SA: It went great. They all told me I had great solid stuff, loved the material, but also said it was the worst possible time ever for a single male singer/songwriter of my…um, maturity. This was right at the time all that the labels seemed to only want teenage girls, and there seemed to be tons of them.

GG: So no commitments?

SA: And no funding. The other reason it took so long has to do with my song “Unhappy Anniversary.” It was picked up by Vitamin C, and she had success with it. All of a sudden, this whole new world existed for me. I saw it as a viable way to make a living, so I made a giant push to write and demo songs that were written for other artists. I spent the better part of a year doing that, wanting to do it while the Vitamin C song cover still was current.

GG: Did it lead anywhere?

SA: Not immediately, no. But I made a lot of connections with people who now know who I am, and will meet with me again. So that was a major diversion. Since the events of September 11th, I’ve come to realize there are no guarantees about anything and that I’d better hurry up and get this CD done and out the door.

GG: And now finally, it’s here. What’s the oldest song on this CD and conversely, which one is the newest?

SA: The oldest would have to be “Are You A Man?” which I wrote back around 1990, I think. I had that song floating around while I was still active in Rockapella, though the group never recorded it. The newest song is called “Over & Done” and that’s from 2002, one of two from this year that I included here. [Editors’ note: The other new one is “The Notion”]

GG: I have to tell you the quality of the CD is strong. I’ve always admired your musicality and ability to create infectious melodies, but wasn’t sure whether a full band backing could do it justice. Your “Full Muscular Band” impresses here from song to song. Were you tough on the others?

SA: What is it Geoff Emerick used to say, something about forget the technology, a band is only as good as its performance? Of course, there are parts in there I wish I could go back and make better, but that’s normal. I am really pleased with the vocals. I did all of the vocals at my home studio, which was great for me, because there’s nothing better than sitting there in your pajamas, punching up a take to get it just the way you want. Having to explain to others what I was after vocally used to be maddening. This is a much better way to go.

GG: I also notice some extra hooks dropped in here and there. These are different mixes than the MP3s that you had up on your website (www.seanaltman.com ) a few months back.

SA: Yes, I’m extremely happy with the way the CD was mixed. Of course, that cost me a LOT. All that extra equipment I was going to get for the home studio? Well it went for the mixing instead.

GG: Well, it seems money well spent. Everything is much improved over what sounded pretty good to begin with. Was it done piecemeal or did you do several songs at once?

SA: The vocals were done at home, most of the guitars were done at Billy Straus’ studio, and the drums were recorded all over the place at like four different locations. Some of those songs have tracks that were recorded a year and a half apart from each other.

GG: That’s pretty amazing. I know that you’ve been a big proponent of this new wave of marketing that’s being done by quite a few indie acts, this whole “living room concert” thing. For a set price, you’ll basically go anywhere and play a personal concert. I certainly can understand how, with the lack of radio outlets and difficulties people might have getting out to live venues, the appeal of the idea. But isn’t it just kind of strange? I mean, do you screen these people to weed out the psychos?

SA: There’ve been no problems like that so far. The bottom line is that I want to play more, and this gives me a great opportunity to do it. I like being onstage and performing and it’s fun to get out there and meet some fans. I’m certainly not in it for the money, because there really isn’t much. A musician asked me recently if he could make a living this way. I thought about it and I guess you could, if you played every night…but it still wouldn’t be much of a living.

GG: So it’s been a positive experience? How many have you done?

SA: Some of them have been lots of fun. I usually pass around a set list and let people call out requests, or if people are fans and know the songs, I’ll let them do it karaoke-style, with me playing accompaniment. I’ve done about 15 of these types of shows so far, and I’ve got about another dozen or so lined up. Occasionally it can be weird if the hosts aren’t organized. What the hosts don’t realize is that not everyone who says they’ll come will. I did a show last week in Albany where about a dozen fewer people showed than were expected.

GG: That’s the nature of people, I guess.

SA: So I’ve been telling hosts to try and overbook, if possible. But I love performing and I want to put together more mini-tours.

GG: The CD is arranged with little snippets of jingles, song fragments and such between the full songs. One of these is a little promo tag from The Persuasions. How did you happen to meet them?

SA: (laughs) Jerry Lawson somehow has this idea that he’s known me since I was a baby. In truth, the first I ever heard about a capella groups or The Persuasions was when I saw them at Brown University. After their concert, they’d ask people to come onstage and join them. Not being shy about anything like that, I was right there singing, but I doubt they’d remember me from that. The real first meeting was during filming by Spike & Co. of the Do It A Cappella show. Rockapella was there and we introduced ourselves to Jerry and then started singing backup on the spot. He was saying, “Why do I need the Persuasions - I got me Rockapella right here backing me up.”

We became friendly after that, did some jingles together and also worked together on Zappa’s Universe, this great tribute CD. The Persuasions actually recorded a Dead song in my apartment and gave me plenty of thanks in the liner notes.

GG: Speaking of the between-song short tracks, you have fragments of two wonderful songs: “Come My Way” and “Follow Me To Heaven.” Why didn’t these songs get the full band treatment (or is it merely an added enticement to have people come see you live)?

SA: Those vocals are from the almost completed full-band treatments of those two songs. But honestly, that’s sort of my nod to the a capella community on this CD. I was looking for good interstitials, and those song fragments happened to be in the perfect key to lead into the following songs.

GG: You co-founded Rockapella and built it up into a fairly well oiled machine, achieving a fair amount of fame and media coverage. Yet in 1997, in a move that you term on your site total “Seanarchy”, you bolted to pursue this solo career. Do you have any regrets?

SA: Honestly, I have no regrets. But there are certain days when I miss the performing, we used to do so many shows. At other times I really miss the camaraderie you get being in a band. It’s the not the same thing now. When I play with my band, these guys have other things going on and it’s not the same level of dedication, understandably. Oh, and I also miss the money.

GG: Are you still in touch with the members of Rockapella?

SA: Yes, we’re still good friends. I do a short little duet with Elliott Kerman on the new CD (“Sean y El”) which is sort of an inside joke, since the phrase “Tenemos dos lapices amarillos” is about all I remember from high school Spanish, and it’s my catch-all answer to every question asked me.

GG: You seem very prolific. How many songs would you say you’ve written, if you had to put a number on it?

SA: Hmm…I’d say 200, maybe. Never stopped and counted them all. Perhaps more.

GG: Okay, time for me to throw in a clichéd music interview question. Name for me your 5 all-time desert island discs.

SA: Okay, tough one. Let me think:

1) Black Sea by XTC
2) The Best of the Decca Years by The Mills Brothers
3) The Man and His Music by Sam Cooke
4) Getz/Gilberto by Stan Getz & Joao Gilberto
5) Help by The Beatles

(in a plea for a sixth choice to keep his sanity - hey, it’s an island - I also granted him Smash by Offspring)

GG: If you could write or perform with anyone, who might it be?

SA: Dead or living?

GG: Either/Or.

SA: I guess I would love to write with McCartney, though I know I would feel intimidated. And I bet it would be a trip to record with Prince, but to sing with anyone, I guess it would have to have been Sam Cooke. I volunteer in this program called “Musicians On Call” and when I play places like Memorial Sloan-Kettering or some of the aids hospices, I get the chance to play a lot of Sam Cooke.

GG: Judging by the lyrical content of the songs on the new CD, one might guess you’re pretty bitter. Failed relationships, vengeance, hurt and anger…I guess there’s a reason your press release cites you as a reluctant poster boy for the heartache of divorce. Is that for real, or is it just good fodder for clever lyrics and wordplay?

SA: Well, hmm. (He picks up his CD, looks over the track list.) Yeah, a lot of it’s based on my own divorce. Much of this stuff is as though I’m singing it to my ex-wife, or at least some lines in specific songs allude to it. It’s not an active issue in my day-to-day living, but I will say this. Before the divorce, I wrote clever songs but they weren’t so compelling. The divorce became this important issue and it gave me real focus.

GG: So it all sort of crystallized after that?

SA: The divorce is like this big bucket I carry along with me and when I need something, I find I can always reach down and grab stuff from it. So while it’s no longer a burning issue I dwell on, it’s been a great creative source.

GG: Let’s talk about the CD artwork. Your first CD had cover art with your head on the body of a pigeon. Now we have several Sean-headed sperm and a Sean guitar-playing fetus. Whose idea was this?

SA: It was my idea and very well executed by the art director. It was something I wanted to be at least as weird as my previous cover and I’m happy with how things turned out.

GG: It’s a funny concept, but perhaps some might find it a bit offensive. Have you gotten any feedback on that?

SA: It’s less strange than my first one, really. And while my girlfriend does find the bumps on the detailed sperm necks a little gross, no one’s said much negative about it.

GG: Do you think you skew toward a more male audience?

SA: No, I don’t think so. In fact, women tend to connect with the universal bitterness in some of my songs, particularly “More In Hate With You” and “The Notion.” What I like about this CD is that almost everyone I know has two or three favorites, yet they all seem to be different songs.

GG: I bet. It’s that strong musically. So many of the songs are great. I’d have a hard time picking just two favorites.

SA: I think it’s a very “radio-ready” album.

GG: If real radio still existed. At any rate, this CD gives you great value in that it comes with 24 official tracks. But you don’t stop there. After the final song, there’s a hidden track of about another ten minutes worth. First you serve up an acoustic song. What’s that called, “Sometime Before Tomorrow”?

SA: Yes, I love that song.

GG: Then there’s a backup track from the song “Person.”

SA: With a great syncopated drum sound.

GG: Then there’s this instrumental tune.

SA: Actually my “mouth organ” version of an old Rockapella song “Secret Santa.”

GG: This is followed by your New York City Taxicab jingle.

SA: Now that’s kind of a funny story. When New York City cabs started playing the “buckle up for safety” messages about 4 years ago, they all were sort of dull horrible monotones. So we actually pitched the TLC (Taxi & Limousine Commission) to try and get them to use this. About that time, they had the idea to start using celebrities instead. They wanted us to go and record the celebrities, but we didn’t want to.

GG: Then there are the phone messages. Let’s talk about that. You had phone messages on your first CD, so I suppose there’s a precedent. But these seem a lot more intense. Are they real messages?

SA: Some of them are; some aren’t. The way I figure, if you’ve already gotten to this point of the CD, that listener is with me and has a sense of who I am.

GG: I admire your bravery. You make a point to speak your mind on the website. I think my favorite thing there is the mini-diary section of Seanecdotes where you tell the story of playing Woody Harrelson in basketball when he was in town doing a show. Did he ever come see you play?

SA: No, but he did do this great promo video for me, introducing me as a white man who CAN jump.

GG: You’ve written for TV (co-wrote “Where in The World Is Carmen Sandiego” theme song) and for commercials. What about film? Would you like to write for the movies?

SA: That would be a dream come true. I’d love to have the sort of treatment Aimee Mann got in Magnolia. I did arrange some music for Steve Martin’s Leap Of Faith and I arranged music and sang as one of the cockroaches in MTV Joe’s Apartment. Other than that, my cinematic claim to fame is in the movie Meet The Parents, I’m the one singing the song “Day By Day” that’s playing in the background radio in a grocery store. It’s kind of key to the next scene, where Ben Stiller is asked to say grace and has no clue, so he starts in with the lyrics of “Day By Day.”

GG: A very funny scene. If you had only three adjectives to describe yourself, what would they be?

SA. Tall. Self-deprecating. Generous.

GG: In the CD insert, you’re shown with this cool guitar, sort of looks like granite. How many guitars do you own and which are your favorites?

SA: This friend of mine, she paints everything: chairs, furniture. So I let her paint two of my guitars and they came out great. That’s one of them. I own about 25 guitars, for no good reason. In fact, many of them are pretty shitty and I keep promising to sell some of them on E-bay, but I never get around to it. I’m not even a very good guitar player. But while other people collect art, I collect guitars. I have many of them hanging on the walls of my apartment. My favorite is this beautiful acoustic Guild. My main electric guitar is this great red Epiphone Casino.

GG: Do you play any other instruments?

SA: My dad plays violin and he wanted me to play also, but it never worked out. I consider myself a singer who plays some guitar. I took a few lessons over the years, but most of it I’ve picked up on my own. Another great thing about doing those house concerts is it forces me to get better. When I left Rockapella, the idea of singing and accompanying myself wasn’t a reality. Whereas now I’m doing it, so obviously I’ve made progress with my guitar playing.

GG: There’s so much debate going on right now concerning the whole music industry and the possible demise of the way major labels operate. What’s your take on Napster?

SA: I feel that Napster was great for indie artists, offering great exposure. Is it stealing? Yes! I wish there could be some kind of encoding so that somehow the artists get paid. But I’m not keeping up with late-breaking industry news.

GG: Again, it’s sort of a musical cliché to talk about your influences, but what are some of the more obvious ones.

SA: The Mills Brothers, Sam Cooke & The Persuasions from my a capella background and The Beatles, Simon & Garfunkel, XTC & Squeeze from my pop side.

GG: So tell me what a typical day for Sean Altman is like.

SA: Okay, typically, I start in on a songwriting session at 10 a.m. At 12:30, I’m over at the gym playing basketball till about 2. From 3 to 6, I’m either back to songwriting or recording. Nights, if I’m not playing a gig I’ll go out with my girlfriend or some friends and usually wind up at a movie. I am a big movie fan, and will see just about any kind of movie.

GG: You’re involved with “What I Like About Jew” as well as many of the “Loser’s Lounge” tribute nights. Tell me a little bit about them.

SA: “What I Like About Jew” lets me show the comedy side of my performing. I run it along with Rob Tannenbaum, another buddy from Brown University, and we do all sorts of R-Rated Comedy following loose themes. It’s a great venue for a whole crew to perform original acoustic and electric songs under the spirit of light-hearted Jewish pride, but all faiths are welcome. We might turn it into an album or a musical someday.

“Loser’s Lounge” is run by Joe McGinty and it has grown over the years. It used to be held on one night in a small place, and now it has expanded to five or six nights in a larger space. It’s also beginning to spin-off into side gigs as well. Basically, it’s a bunch of downtown music scene people paying tribute to a particular artist or band. It’s been great for me, and I’ve met lots of talented artists. It’s been a very good experience.

Loser’s Lounge was instrumental in giving me the courage to leave Rockapella. I saw all these artists who were roughly my age and they were making records and playing around and surviving and I thought, “Hey, why not me?”

GG: Why not indeed! So what’s next for Sean Altman? Where does the career go from here?

SA: I guess the immediate goal is to promote this new CD as best I can independently and tour and perform as much as possible. The ongoing goals are to write more for film and television, and to have other artists cover my songs too.

GG: I wish you every success. Thanks for taking the time with me tonight.

SA: Thank you!

And with that, Sean headed back downtown to mix a recording of a school choir, and then to pack for a five-day excursion to the Baltimore and Washington D.C. areas.
Nervous about whether his newly purchased heavily-used Geo Prizm would survive the trip, he ventured off into the great unknown, tall and talented and hoping to sing his melodic way into the hearts and minds of powerpop fans everywhere.

For review of Sean's latest recording, alt.mania, click here

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