Phew! Lucky I Didn’t Vote For Bush.

Wisely Considers (Musical) Performance-Enhancing Drug Regimen.


Politics and music are sometimes awkward bedfellows, but sometimes the combination explains everything.

Late last year producer Linus of Hollywood invited me to contribute to an album project he was crafting for Secret Friend, a hybrid American/Australian project by Sydney-based songwriter Steven Fox.

“Singing lead on someone elses’ album?!?!?! That sounds like a blast. Yes, yes, yes!”

With Linus of Hollywood and Steven Fox (Secret Friend) in the studio

With Linus of Hollywood and Steven Fox (Secret Friend) in the studio

But woah, when I got behind the microphone was I ever surprised at how difficult it was to sing Secret Friend songs. Every track revealed a series of twisting, unexpected, sophisticated melodic challenges.

The influences of Brian Wilson, Bacharach, ABBA, Nilsson and Gilbert O. Sullivan are everywhere. And that’s a tough crowd to hang with. I’m a little embarrassed to admit to barely being able to sing some of these songs. God forbid we ever play a live show, because it’ll have to be after I’ve revved up an anabolic steroid regimen with a cocktail of alchohol and cocaine right before we go onstage. Either way, it’ll kill me.

The most distinctive aspect of the record is the subject matter. Fox is all candor when it comes to lyrics. It’s hard not to blush, listening to my own voice singing out these often “incorrect” lyrical tales. The dude may be more or less as demented as the rest of us–but to fill sweet, sweet pop songs with such stuff is–well–admirable or crazy. I’m not really sure which–and neither seems he. In any case, it’s clear that the band’s name carries plenty of stiff irony. Come to think of it, little about Fox doesn’t hide a quiet “other meaning”. It’s the biggest part of his brilliance.

Fox was smart to bring Linus into the fold for his debut album. It sounds like a gleaming jewel. Linus laser focused on melody and concision, and has the nimble music brain to command the difficult material and bring it into a beautiful and clarified space. Listening to the album now, there seems nothing difficult about it at all. Everything follows.

Linus was also able to bring in heavyweight talent, top to bottom, adorning every track with names that will speak much to we fans of poppy songcrafters. Notably, Kelly Jones filling out vocal duties with me, keyboardists Bob Remstein (Mello Cads), Ben Romans (The Click Five), and the eminent Roger Joseph Manning Jr. (Jellyfish, Beck), and aces Carson Cohen on bass guitar, Reade Pryor on drums. And don’t forget arrangements by John Hill who’s worked with a hero to us all, Margo Guryan.

Here is my ask: please support this record by buying it, either direct-from-the-artist through the player at the top of the page, the iTunes link below, or anywhere really. Fox’ journey into music has been a long and unlikely tale, and I know there’s a place at the pop table for what he’s pushing here (no, not steroids and coke).

Anecdotally, a small studio moment with Fox somehow illuminates his personality and what motivated him to release an album in these quixotic days of the music business.

First of all, he’s lived all over the world; had a short-lived run as a musician; then designed years of innovative code (for the travel industry if I remember correctly); started up companies, lost them, and started up still others–loosing and amassing and losing again fortunes. He’s a tech wunderkind who has survived on his HUGE dreams and unassuming demeanor and has probably suffered a few lifetimes of hell from always being the smartest mofo in the room.

He lives in Sydney, but speaks with what seems like an American accent. So I asked why he left the states, knowing that he’d moved to Australia in year 2000. His flat response, “Because George Bush was elected President.”

NOW how much do you love this guy? There’s a reason to buy Secret Friends right there. Do it! And if you voted for Bush, YOU BUY TWO DAMMIT (Dad are you listening?)!

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I absolutely recommend NOT watching these videos. Stop now! Turn back! Please, for your own sake, for society, for your children, turn awaaaaaaaaaaaay!!!!!!

Score a bonus track or two!

Time Machine - Secret Friend

2 responses to “Phew! Lucky I Didn’t Vote For Bush.”

  1. […] recently sung a virtual duet with the female singer/songwriter Kelly Jones during the sessions for Secret Friend, an Australian pop project. Linus of Hollywood had produced that project and as I overdubbed my […]

  2. […] I first heard Kelly sing she was a disembodied voice in my head phones. I was singing lead on the Secret Friends project and Kelly had recorded her part of our duet first. He voice blew me away and I knew I’d have […]

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