Trever Keith – Melancholics Anonymous

Melancholics Anonymous

The solo album Melancholics Anonymous by Trever Keith (best known for his band Face to Face) was first unveiled back in 2008 when we did a brief North American tour to support it, but the release was limited to a short run of hand-numbered CDs sold at the shows.

Earlier this year Trever re-released the album on CD and digital download, with a slightly different track listing (including the originally unreleased track “Another Diversion”), available directly through his Bandcamp site.

Trever and I put a lot of love and care into this record, and I think it’s pretty great. But I’ve never written about it on my site before, so this seemed like a good time. I’m especially proud of the tracks Incommunicado, Polish, Absolution, and Bleeding Out. Listen here:

Recording notes: This album was several years in the making, and comprises recordings made at Cello Studios in Hollywood, CA (drums, bass, guitars, recorded to Studer A-800 at 15ips) and Audio International in Ojai, CA (more drums), along with many other instruments performed and programmed at The Eye Socket and at Trever’s personal studio. Rustic keyboards feature prominently throughout the album, including Trever’s Wurlitzer 200A and Clavioline, Mellotron, and Hammond Extravoice. Vocals were recorded at The Eye Socket (mostly) on a modified Neumann CMV-563 with a BLUE omni capsule. There are copious amounts of tape-based echo and doubling effects all over the record (Klemt Echolette S, Tesla Echolana 2, Maestro Echoplex, Fulltone TubeTapeEcho, Rheem Califone), along with the trusty Sherman Filterbank and plenty of other weird noisemakers and processors. We mixed at The Eye Socket to 1/2″ analog tape (on an Ampex ATR-102 running at 30ips). Joe Gastwirt mastered.