As some of you may know, I post on this site a lot and have been active for about 12 years or so. In my spare time, I am a musician and record music under the band name “Global Shakedown”. (I’m a lawyer by day, musician by night). I’ve just finished a 21 track album entitled “Under The Green Leaf”. It will be available within a week or two on download/streaming sites like iTunes, Amazon, Google Play, I Heart Radio, Shazam and others.
So while you wait for the next debate and try to get through the rest of this election season, I thought I would share with this community a sneak preview of my upcoming release. I’ve put together a private playlist through Soundcloud which has all of the tracks. You can stream them on this site. I’ll have it up for a few weeks before the release makes it to iTunes/Amazon etc.
Musically, I would characterize it as the sound of alternative rock merging with the world of EDM. It’s guitar based alternative rock but with a generally faster paced sound and active beats and embellishments. There are 20 original compositions and 1 cover.
Perhaps the song that most clearly captures the musical theme of this record is my cover of “Lemon” by U2. For those of you who are fans of U2, this is one of my favorite songs from them, and one that they’ve rarely performed live. I tried to envision what the song would sound like if they had made an arena friendly version of it for the stage, and it basically translated it into something more disco-like.
Lyrically, the album is sort of a collection of observations about a journey through America. A lot of it is told from the perspective of someone who is part of it, but is also an observer on the outside looking in. As a 1st generation American, we get to see America both from within and from an outside perspective.
Of course, since I like politics, there are a number of songs on this record that delve into political themes. If there is one song I would love to put a Hillary ad together for it is “In the Same Boat”. This song imagines a conversation between 2 friends, one who embraces the social and cultural change we see in our society and another who is uncomfortable with it. The song was written before Trump actually entered the race, but in a sense it foretells how someone as dark as Trump might arise in a world where one side has been reacting and objecting to the Presidency of Barack Obama in a visceral and unrelenting way. The theme of the song, though, is that no matter how different we think we all are, when we look behind a curtain we are all basically tied together and have the same issues, hopes, dreams and challenges. You could be a latino family in South Florida or a working class white family in the Florida panhandle — We are all in the same boat. That concept seems to me to tie in with Hillary’s “Stronger Together” theme.
Thanks for indulging me.