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DAVID UDELL |
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It's also quite a pleasant surprise to hear David Udell’s 2024 return to form entitled It’s Worth It. Compared to the instrumental prog-rock comeback by Delay Tactics, It’s Worth It is filled with an equally compelling mixture of pop-rock vocals and singer-songwriter based sounds that features Udell performing on electric, acoustic, nylon and slide guitars, piano, synth keyboards, bass guitars, theremin, stylophone, flexitone, trumpet, percussion and toys. Supporting throughout It’s Worth It are a number of fine musicians including Udell's Delay Tactics bandmates Carl Weingarten (slide lead guitar) and Walter Whitney (modular synthesizer), in addition to assorted contributions on various tracks by Margaret Bianchetta (vocals, flute), Monica Reed (vocals), Jackie Niebylski (bass guitar), Mike Long (drums), Dominic Schaeffer (soprano sax, alto sax, synthesizer, vocals) Tracy Wynkoop (bass guitar) and Jack Spann (clavinet). With his penchant for writing incisive and at times, humorous lyrics to drape his catchy pop and rock arrangements, Udell can be regarded as a kind of a modern day pop culture satirist and that is made clear on the leadoff track “Watching The Freak Parade”, where our protagonist lambasts the latest “culture war porn in an echo chamber metaverse”, when he then implores the divisive to “Bring it on… I'm mad and way too exhausted to be afraid”. From there on out, It’s Worth It takes on a more shaded view of current events in the 2020’s beginning with track 2, “It’s Beginning To Look Like Rain”. With an almost Delay Tactics inspired melody, the track underscores the fact that “America's gone insane, It's beginning to look like rain”. Yet, the song is a positive moment and speaks of a hopeful outcome to the American culture wars of the 2020’s.
It's Worth It changes musical direction somewhat with a short but sweet track called “The Motion Song”, that clocks in at over a minute and features handclaps that sound startling in a percussive manner. Written in 1980, it’s interesting that David dug this song enough to revive iton It’s Worth It. Following “The Motion Song”, It’s Worth It changes tempo again as “Our River” brings a rock element back into play. With its train of thought wordplay and its driving, infectious beat, “Our River” makes an excellent showcase for Udell’s multi-track vocal arrangements and his skillful electric guitar skills. Throughout the track, he continues to ask the listener “Are we listening to the poetry?” “Solid Ground” starts slow but soon picks up the tempo. Insightful and full of hopeful, yet unyielding questions about life, Udell beseeches the listeners with questions such as “When does the money comes in?, When does the wisdom kick in?, When will the world come around?, When will we be on solid ground?” It’s hard to find a common denominator here as the song is so original sounding. “Made My Peace” brings another change of pace on It’s Worth It. There’s a Beatles kind of echo in the song and vocal arrangement to say nothing of the trippy effects, cello and sitar swirls pulsating through the arrangement. Ultimately an uplifting song, “Made My Peace” informs the listener that its author has “Made my peace with the past anyhow”. The final third of It’s Worth It encompasses the set closing title track, a companion track called “Is It Worth It?”, with a surreal sounding collage, “Unexplored Expanses”, nestled between. Compared to the overall upbeat vibes of the title track (see below), “Is It Worth It?” questions life, asking “Self-righteous, angry people making reckless, mean decisions, You have to jump fast just to side step the collision of delusions everywhere, I mean everywhere, Is it really even worth it if you care?” “Unexplored Expanses” links the two-part title track with a dreamy, instrumental dreamlike track that implores the listener to “make it worth it”. The longest song on the album, the title track “It’s Worth It” brings us back to the table with lyrics “The life we have here only makes it so damn clear, It's worth it”. “It’s Worth It” is another track that keeps the dream alive with a chord progression John Lennon would appreciate. “It’s Worth It” almost qualifies as a real kind of “Imagine” anthem for the 2020’s. In contrast to Lennon’s utopian imagery, David Udell makes it clear that we love our possessions and maybe, despite there being no heaven or hell, we can perhaps make life worth it if only ‘til this dream comes to an end”.
mwe3.com presents the 2024 interview with David Udell
David Udell: I actually wrote “Freak Parade” a few years back. The album took longer than I anticipated and I was afraid it wouldn't be relevant by now. I guess I was hoping... I'm afraid it is more than ever. The internet has changed everything. Reliable information and well informed decision making are all but dead. Greed and cynicism have fueled bad actors who know fear and anger are drugs we're all addicted to. We're not mature enough as a society to discern facts from lies. Increasingly complex algorithms are used to monetize every part of our lives and we've become complicit. mwe3: Is “It’s Beginning To Look Like Rain” a hopeful song? Who is singing with you on that track? How do you balance your pain these days? David Udell: My old friend Margaret Bianchetta is singing. Whenever I need great flute or a compassionate voice, she's my "go to". I only used her for vocals on Orchids and I regret it. mwe3: “Slow Song” is one of my favorite tracks on It’s Worth It. Considering Carl Weingarten is playing guitar and Walter Whitney is playing synth, does the track have a kind of Delay Tactics edge to it? It seems like train of thought, dreamlike lyrically but is the song ultimately a love song? Tell us what guitars you play on the new album.
“Slow Song” is primarily a political song. But it recognizes the underlying, inherent idea of love. I figured I could get away with the love interpretation for the pop market. There's always a lot of give and take. It's also a realization of my responsibility in relationships. We all have a lot to learn. Delay Tactics has always been about the discipline of creating music without vocals. Songs are my main passion though and I've always wanted to do a vocal album centered around Delay Tactics. I'm very far into my next album. I plan to use Walt and Carl a lot more. They have both taught me a lot about actual sound. The next record was going to be called "Theater Of The Mind", but David Byrne got involved with a group by that name. I always take too long to finish my projects. Of course working for a living can be time consuming. mwe3: Why did you include “The Motion Song” on the new album? You said the track actually has a copyright from 1980. It seems like a kind of sing-song but the handclaps are great. What does the song signify and what memories do you have of 1980? David Udell: Sometimes we're just going through the motions. We like to believe we're moving in a positive direction. Sometimes the positive movement stops but we're caught in life's trajectory. We just hang on for the ride. A lot of life is spent unconscious. That's okay, we need the rest. “Motion Song” has only been recorded live and for a video. It's time for a studio version. Walter calls it a "pallet cleanser" after “Slow Song”. It's my son Dylan's favorite song by me. As far as 1980 goes, I think that's when I became an adult. mwe3: “Our River” really kicks in after “The Motion Song”. You reiterate the lyric “Are we listening to the poetry”. You compare life to a river, adrift in timeless forever. There’s also some interesting multi-tracked vocals. Do you like stacking vocals like you do in “Our River”? David Udell: “Our River” is about the energy we throw into love when we're young. How beautiful and wonderful the world is. You think it will last forever. It doesn't and sometimes it takes a long time to get past. You have to learn to move on. The strongest passion and sense of joy I've ever had is that moment when you get past the pain of loss and start to feel the optimism of the future. Songs with really happy music but lyrics filled with sorrow seem to express it best for me. It's an emotional high. I never feel like I have enough vocals in my music. I'm always trying to be aware of it. A voice is the human element in music. I don't think anything else can get as personal. mwe3: “Solid Ground” yet it is filled with a mixture of love and fear. “It’s not the dog in the fight, it’s the fight in the dog” is a humorous way to put it.
mwe3: “Made My Peace” has a kind of Beatles mid-section. The song’s symphonic ending is quite effective. It really builds to a climax which is superb. David Udell: I wanted a ‘60s psychedelic song because that's my spiritual center. An ever ascending crescendo of life that ends in the orgasm of a fulfilled life. Musically it was inspired by Mahavishnu Orchestra's "Resolution" motif they seemed to throw into all their records. Always climbing. mwe3: The final third of It’s Worth It centers around messages in “Is It Worth It?” and “It’s Worth It”. How are the two songs connected by the near instrumental called “Unexplored Expanses”. What are your thoughts on how these songs are connected? David Udell: It's hard not to be cynical about this world. Is all this fuss worth it? I have my moments of doubt. “Unexplored Expanses” is about the search. I did my best to expose unexplored areas of my subconscious and the impressions life has made on me. My mom recorded a lullaby on my son's toy recorder so he could fall asleep when she wasn't around. I had to use it. Her voice haunts us both. I really miss her. mwe3: “Is It Worth It?” speaks about the end of days and angry people making bad decisions, and oligarchs and medicare. “Side step the collision of delusions everywhere I mean everywhere” it's like being an acrobat these days. Your guitar work is one fire on this track. Does the song also speak about the loss of privacy in the 2020s? David Udell: You can't help but be pessimistic. You reach a point where you just want to get drunk and watch it all explode. Are we just prisons, quarries, landfills and amusement parks? You have to admit, it's all pretty ambitious. I can't help but be impressed. Even though it fills me with dread. As far as privacy goes, all I can say is, have you seen the end of the movie Brazil? mwe3: How does “Unexplored Expanses” fit into the final trilogy of tracks on It’s Worth It? And what are the spoken word in the middle of the track? There are also some spoken word parts in the song. It’s pretty powerful stuff, kind of like “Revolution #9”.
mwe3: Taking a kind of sarcastic view of the world, “It’s Worth It” concludes the album with a kind of John Lennon “Imagine” type song that kind of implores us to find a reason to believe, so to speak. Lennon kept telling us to ‘hold on’ “Hold on now”… although I think you lay it out pretty clearly in this track. It does have a kind of Beatles twist. Your guitar work is another winning point here. David Udell: The theme of the record is: Music is the best way to communicate one to one in a very personal way but still do it on a mass level. "We might not know each other, but you know we're all out here." No one should feel isolated or alone. I tried to get at pure love with the guitar solo. It's hard to live up to, but I do my damnedest to really be in the moment with my playing. mwe3: You’re listed as playing number of instruments on It’s Worth It. Did you do a lot of overdubbing on each track and which tracks feature the theremin, stylophone and flexatone? Trumpet and toys too? Sometimes I associate your guitar sound with Carl Weingarten’s guitar as, at times you have a similar sonic ethos. Also what about Walter Whitney’s guitar work? David Udell: A lot of folks don't feel this way but I've always preferred recording to live music. Music is pure theater of the mind. I get totally high. The Beatles and early Todd Rundgren exposed me to the magic of overdubbing. I think Carl and I sound totally different but I love his stuff. He only plays slide guitar on “Slow Song”. I think my slide on “Freak Parade” illustrates our differences. Walt's a great guitarist too but he only plays modular synth on “Slow Song” for this project. The theremin, stylophone, flexatone and trumpet are all on “Made My Peace”. My girlfriend Valerie got me the stylophone and flexitone as gifts. I grew up playing trumpet but lost my embouchure a long time ago. I'm working at getting it back for my next project. I tried to create a perpetual motion machine for the end of “Motion Song”. Valerie lent me a childhood toy that I incorporated into the sound.
David Udell: Wax Theatricks was my first, long time band. I consider them my family still. In fact, we're getting together for an "It's Worth It" listening party just before the release on June 18. Brothers Dominic (winds, piano, guitar and vocals) and Benet (drums) Schaeffer, Tracy Wynkoop (bass) and Dan Stefacek (keys/synths). We started when I was 15. We were inspired by Jethro Tull, Mahavishnu Orchestra and Captain Beefheart. When the Who's Quadrophenia came out, Dominic and I wrote a rock opera called Webster Hangover. It was about our adventures hitchhiking out to the suburbs to be with our girlfriends. When we got a little older we produced a couple of singles, 3 Lp’s and a flexidisc that appeared in a local art magazine. That was the first release of “The Motion Song” in 1980. We were considered Prog but I always thought of us as Art Rock. We always dedicated our records to people we recently lost. Patrick was my brother and I lost him last summer. In 2011, Wax Theatricks held a reunion show that was taped. A live show and documentary called 33 1/3 was produced. All of our records, including the singles, were recorded at 33 1/3 and it had been 33 1/3 years since we started recording, Our keyboard player, Danny, died with cancer soon after the show. My record Orchids was dedicated to him. mwe3: Did Carl or Walter hear your new album yet? David Udell: Yes, and I got a lot of great advice from both of them. mwe3: So, what are some of your other reflections about It’s Worth It and how long did it take to write the tracks and do the recording? You don’t make solo albums very often, so It’s Worth It is a definite blessing for your fans and the Delay Tactics fans too. Even with all the craziness in the world of 2024, are you still hopeful music fans will take the time out to listen?
I guess boomers are the only demographic who listen to entire albums now. All of my friends have become professional musicians and they're all incredible. I've never had any interest in performing cover songs so I work. I'll give you an analogy. Skydiving was my entire life for around 15 years. A friend who had been a successful businessman quit his job, left his wife, bought an RV and became a professional skydiver. He warned me, "never turn what you love into a job!" All the love for the sport left him. I met a woman who was a jumper. We even got married in free fall. When we had kids, I had to focus on making money in the sport and the fun disappeared. I had been warned. I'm only, just now, getting back into the sport. mwe3: So now that It’s Worth It is released, are you looking towards a possible follow-up to the Delay Tactics Elements Of Surprise album and what else are you looking forward to this year? I hope we can make it through 2024 in one piece… David Udell: Delay Tactics' plan is to work on one piece at a time. Maybe even release them as singles until there's enough for an album. A vinyl retrospective was released in Europe a couple of years ago so we've decided to release the old records on CD with extra tracks. There was a lot of good stuff we never published. I'm working on my next one and plan on involving Delay Tactics a lot more.
Produced, engineered and mixed by David Udell Mastered by J. Goody at Megasonic Sound, Oakland, California – All songs copyright ©2024 David Udell except “The Motion Song” copyright ©1980 - Release date for It’s Worth It CD and Vinyl LP is June 18th, 2024 - UPC code for CD is 195269302832 / UPC code for vinyl is 195269302924
WATCHING THE FREAK PARADE IT’S BEGINNING TO LOOK LIKE RAIN SLOW SONG THE MOTION SONG OUR RIVER SOLID GROUND MADE MY PEACE IS IT WORTH IT? UNEXPLORED EXPANSES Make it worth it
All songs copyright ©2024 David Udell except The Motion Song copyright ©1980
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St. Louis based singer-songwriter David Udell released his debut solo album Orchids in 2015. A mix of quirky pop and rock, Orchids was acclaimed by music fans and critics lucky enough to hear it. Having worked with American guitar hero Carl Weingarten and synth maven Walter Whitney in the 1980s as an early recruit in the instrumental art-prog band Delay Tactics, Udell is clearly no stranger to the music scene and long-time fans were duly rewarded in 2022 when Udell, Weingarten and Whitney released a Delay Tactics comeback album called Elements Of Surprise.
That trippy, spacey Delay Tactics approach in Udell’s current music comes in loud and clear on “Slow Song”. A fine showcase for his imaginative electric guitar work and multi-tracked vocals, “Slow Song” bemoans the rapid scale and pace of life in the 2020’s and how it’s almost impossible to make all the right moves in a breakneck culture where “hope is a sedative, you know”, while admitting “I have been wrong before, you know, we got along before”. In a self-reflective moment, Udell also admits that “I wrote this down to sort the whole thing out”.
mwe3: Is “Watching The Freak Parade” your own personal diatribe against life in 2024? Everyone is so burned out by the division and sudden deaths. In the song you mentioned “Culture War porn in an echo chamber Metaverse”… I seem to remember things like Facebook and Twitter (now X) were better ten or more years ago. Both have since stripped us of our rights… It smacks of big boys bickering.
David Udell: My main workhorse is an 1980's Telecaster, The pickups switch from single coil to double coil. I also use a Les Paul for open tunings and slide, a 12 string electric Ibanez, a Yamaha steel string acoustic and a Cordoba nylon string classical guitar.
David Udell: Getting old and still being conscious. Looking back at all the expectations and ambitions you haven't realized. Recognizing the great things around you. The fight is what life really is. If you lose the spirit of the fight it's over. As Margaret sings it, "Loving people make it worth it."
David Udell: The voice was a public domain track I used. I believe it's a Russian sub in distress. I used it to express panic. 
mwe3: Can you say something about the album dedication 'For Patrick' on the album artwork, and can you also say something about the Wax Theatricks connection.
David Udell: Well, the thing I do worry about is, everything is geared toward singles now with streaming. I compose albums. That's why it takes so long for me to crank them out. Especially while I spend most of my time working for a living.
On a side note. I spend a lot of time with my "art bike" group The Banana Bike Brigade. We do a lot of parades and have even came in first place in the St. Louis Mardi Gras parade a few times. We create bicycle Paper Mache art. We use lot of other materials too. It gives me a chance to create art and spread the joy of life. This year will be very busy.