Steve Drizos
Portland, Oregon-based musician/engineer/producer Steve Drizos, a
professional touring musician for more than twenty seven years and studio
owner, who can currently be found behind the drums for Jerry Joseph and The
Jackmormons or helming the board at his SE Portland recording studio, The
Panther, has recently released his sophomore full-length album, i love you now
leave me alone (Cavity Search Records).
Having worked with countless artists at The Panther, including Patterson Hood
(Drive-By Truckers), Debbi Peterson (The Bangles), Spencer Tweedy, Chris
Funk (The Decembrists), and Scott McCaughey (R.E.M., Minus 5, The Young
Fresh Fellows), as well as his wife, The Decemberists’ Jenny Conlee, Drizos is
no stranger to both sides of the studio, culminating in his debut solo album,
Axiom, which was released on Cavity Search Records in 2021. Written and
recorded during the start of the pandemic, Axiom was Drizos’ chance to
experiment in the studio and make a solo album, playing most of the
instruments himself. However, with i love you now leave me alone, he decided
to demo everything and build a band around the songs, resulting in a powerful
follow-up that finds the songwriter side of him growing and evolving, delivering
another strong collection of eight powerful songs that find influence in 90s
guitar-rock, pop, and folk.
“My first record, Axiom, got a lot more attention and positive feedback than I
ever could have imagined, so I felt really motivated to release a follow up as
soon as possible,” Drizos says discussing the birth of i love you now leave me
alone. “And where Axiom was very much done on my own, I wanted this
project to be a band, tracking the songs live and having much more
collaboration. Once I had a batch of songs that I felt good about, I assembled
the players and got to work.”
The band includes drummer Scott Van Schoick, Tim Murphy (RoughCuts) on
bass and backing vocals, Todd Wright on electric guitars and backing vocals,
and his wife, Jenny Conlee on piano and electric piano.
“I spent a decent amount of time making demos of these songs that were pretty
fleshed out,” he says. “The versions of the songs on the album are not very far
from those demos, just played much better and with some much cooler ideas
added in.”
Whereas Axiom was introspective and about Drizos and his newfound sobriety,
i love you now leave me alone focuses more on Drizos’ loved ones and his
relationships with them.
“Most of the songs on this album are about my relationships with those closest
to me. Some songs are pretty direct, like ‘troubled heart’ is a song directly for
my wife, while others are more of an amalgamation of people in my life. My
first album was much more introspective, so I wanted this one to be looking out
and talk about some of those relationships.”
But, even with deep love for those closest to him, the self-admitted introvert
decided to title the record with a saying he feels a lot. “I think it relates to the
album in that the sentiment of ‘I love you, now leave me alone’ is relatable to
most introverts like myself,” he confesses. “Deeply loving those closest to us,
but at the same time being pretty happy to be left alone. I had the title before I
had any of the songs finished or even started. It kind of gave me a compass
direction as to what the record was going to be about.”
On the bouncy, warm pop-rocker “kick into touch,” which builds into a driven
rocker, Drizos sings:
Everyone I call home
Something I want you to know
You lift me up, you fill my soul
I love you, now leave me alone
“I think that pretty much sums up how I feel a lot of the times. I was worried
that people would take that as being rude or insulting, but most everyone that’s
heard the lyric or I tell them the album title laughs and says, ‘I get it!’ I’m not
the only one who feels this way.”
When asked what the highlight of the album is for him, Drizos beams with
excitement about the energy of the record, thanks to playing the songs live in
the studio with a full band.
“Overall, I think the energy of a band playing in a room together was captured
very well on this record. Even though there was a decent amount of overdubs,
the foundation of the songs were all tracked live and I think you can really feel
that. Songs like ‘boomerang’ and ‘beautiful nothing’ especially capture the
energy.”
Not only did Drizos work with a full band on his sophomore effort, but he also
worked with a vocal coach to better deliver his vocals on this release.
“I worked with an amazing singer and good friend, Rebecca Sanborn, as a
vocal producer/coach and she really pushed me to do things that I didn’t think I
could do. She took me out of my comfort zone and made me work for it and I
could not be more pleased with the results. As someone who doesn’t consider
myself a strong vocalists, I am really happy with the results on this record.”
While the record sounds fresh and contemporary, it is heavily rooted in and
influenced by 90s rock, something Drizos contributes to the music he keeps
coming back to.
“[90s rock] resonates with me the most,” he admits. “Maybe at 50 years old it
reminds me of a more innocent time in my life, maybe it’s just really familiar
and comforting. I love the energy and larger than life aspect of music from that
era. Can it be overly earnest from time to time? Absolutely. But I’m not afraid
to go there! As long as it’s not ALL like that. I guess it doesn’t feel like it was a
choice to go in the direction of 90s rock, its just where I live most of the time.”
When Drizos recorded and released Axiom, he had no intentions to play any of
those songs live, and thus didn’t. However, he approached i love you now
leave me alone differently, with live shows in mind.
“I approached the writing and the producing of the album with the idea of
playing live shows in mind, which I did not do with Axiom. I hope that the live
shows are a pretty close representation of what the album sounds like. Since I
don’t really play live shows, at least as a band leader playing my songs, I’m not
sure what to expect. I feel like I have found a great group of players that I feel
really comfortable with, so I would love to bring these songs to a live audience.”
The album’s first single, “brooklyn 97202,” is about his SE Portland
neighborhood.
“I chose this as the first single because I really wanted to release it in the
summer. It’s a summer song, as well as a good example and introduction of
what the band sounds like.”
“Almost everyday I walk the same route around my neighborhood,” he
continues. “Most of the lyrics for this album I came up with on these walks.
Last summer I felt hyper aware of the phenomenon that happens in the Pacific
Northwest, after a long and dreary winter/spring, the lights come back on and
everything turns from grey to technicolor overnight. And there is a collective lift
in everyone’s mood. The lights coming back on has definite parallels with the
seasonal depression that a lot people suffer living in this area.”
With the album’s first single set for release July 21st, and the album set for
release in early 2024, Drizos is excited for people to start hearing the record.
And, while he made the record for himself, something he would listen to, he’s
not shy about admitting he wants people to hear it and connect with it.
“All I’m doing is making music that I enjoy making and listening to, and hope
that others will get something out of it. I try my best to ride the line of believing
this record is really good, wanting people to hear it and enjoy it, and at the
same time not take any of it too seriously and remember its another record in a
long line of records that have come before and will come after.
“I hope it gets to people’s ears and they find something that they can relate to
in it. I’m in a unique position where I’m not making a record for a particular fan
base or planning a big tour around the release of the album. So the stakes are
relatively low in those regards, which takes some of the pressure off. I love
making records, I love collaborating with people I trust and respect, and I will
keep doing that regardless. But at the same time I’m an insecure artist who
wants people to like what I create.”