FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 15, 2016
Alex Dezen (of The Damnwells) to host 8- to 9-hour livestream event on February 11, 2016
Dezen to perform his entire catalog over the course of one day from a series of Nashville locations
Alex Dezen (founder, frontman and main songwriter for the Brooklyn-bred four-piece The Damnwells) is planning a special livestream event to take place on YouTube on February 11th to celebrate the release of his debut, self-titled solo album on February 12th. The event has been dubbed “Live from Nashville: The Alex Dezen Solo Album Release Extravaganza! Tune in as Alex Performs His Entire Catalog in the 8- (or Possibly 9) Hour Internet Concert Spectacular!” Over the course of the day-long event, scheduled to take place in Nashville at multiple venues, Dezen plans to perform his entire catalog (all released solo and Damnwells material encompassing his 15-year career), culminating in the performance of his new album in its entirety at the final venue of the day.
“It made sense to me on the eve of the release of my first solo record to do this,” says Dezen. “It’s a sort of ‘last romp in the sack’ with my old self. Everything I’ve written has led to this moment, to the release of this solo record. It seemed right to put it all in perspective. Of course there’s the can-I-actually-pull-it-off appeal. It’s a massive challenge.”
Dezen plans to perform at multiple locations in Nashville throughout the day, ending the event with a livestream show that evening at the High Watt (tickets for the High Watt show go on sale to the public on January 18th). Made in Network will be the production company, providing the livestream expertise for the day’s events, and Villain Place will be offering audio and production assistance and manpower.
“I think it’s going to be joyous and hard,” offers Dezen. “I think there will be fatigue and frustration, but also celebration and excitement. By the end of that day I will have performed 112 original songs. Not many people can say they’ve done that. And it was a hard f*cking 15 years of writing songs and making records and touring, opening for anyone and playing for no one. There were fights and barf and tears and hugs and all kinds of sh*t. But there were also sold out shows and great friendships and tremendous amounts of love. So I’m gonna play all these songs and see what kind of stuff it conjures up in me and you and all else.”
The genesis of the idea came to Dezen after he read about a 12-hour-long concert Bob Schneider did several year ago. Over the course of the concert, Schneider didn’t repeat any song. Says Dezen of Schneider’s undertaking: “It was just one person’s body of work, performed for a live audience. There was something kind of dangerous about that to me, both emotionally and physically, and I instantly loved the idea.” Dezen tried to think of different ways to spin the experience, both for himself and for longtime fans, to make it fun and interesting while potentially engaging people around the globe, and a livestream from multiple locations in one city fit the bill.
“Of course I don’t have quite the body of work that Schneider has—in fact I have a little more than half that body of work—but I liked the idea of having to revisit and relearn and regurgitate the last 15 years of my original material and put it on display, a kind of patricide scenario, where I could perhaps be killed by my own creation. Then there’s the nostalgia aspect, which I’m completely addicted to. Going back through these songs has brought me back to places I haven’t been in years. Ironically, there’s a real abandonment of ego in the performance of one’s entire catalog in one sitting. My voice will get tired. I will forget some chords and lyrics. I will inevitably fall prey to my own creation, and that excites me more than anything. I have no f*cking idea what’s going to happen, and that’s rad.”
The livestream event may be nothing short of insanity, but Dezen could think of no better way to celebrate his debut solo full-length—an endeavor with which he embarks on his next musical phase and an appropriately eponymous, deeply personal, 10-track self-portrait of a man now ready to lay the foundation for his own identity as a solo artist. “When words alone are not enough, you need to say it in a song,” says Dezen. A creative burst during a stint in Ohio over New Year’s 2015 sowed the seeds for tracks that would be recorded in Los Angeles during January and February. “I didn’t write like 30 songs and just kind of pick the 10 best. These are 10 songs that I had to write.” The bulk of the sonic slices on the album are served up straight from past personal, and often painful, experiences.
Dezen’s prowess for writing celebrated songs of every ilk is undeniable. In 2010, he earned his master’s degree from the University of Iowa after completing two years at the institution’s Iowa Writers’ Workshop. In 2014, Dezen released a series of four solo EPs. In March 2015, following a seven-year split, the original Damnwells lineup reunited and released their fifth studio album, a self-titled collection featuring 11 tracks. In addition to his contribution to The Damnwells’ vast canon of songs over the 15 years the band has been recording, Dezen has written for others and worked with a variety of superstars, including Dave Grohl, The Dixie Chicks, Justin Bieber and Kelly Clarkson, among many others. In 2015, he collaborated with the American dance company Pilobolus Dance Theater, composing the music for the dance piece “Wednesday Morning, 11:45 (2015),” which was performed at the Skirball Center for the Performing Arts in New York City.
Alex Dezen catalog song list:
The Park Slope EP (2000)
1. So You Say Someday
2. Tell Me Something
3. The District Doctor
4. Stars Won’t Do
5. I’ve Got Visions
The Damnwells EP (2001)
6. Fourth Avenue
7. New Look Now
8. Three Day Old Lover (Red Version)
9. Not Me Instead
10. Wake Up, Get Out
11. Three Day Old Lover (Blue Version)
PMR +1 (2002)
12. H.C.E.
13. While You Can
14. Have to Ask
15. Sleepsinging
16. The Trade
17. Goodnight Tonight
18. Everybody Knows
Bastards of the Beat (2003)
19. Assholes
20. What You Get
21. Kiss Catastrophe
22. I’ll Be Around
23. Newborn History
24. I Will Keep the Bad Things from You
[Sleepsinging]
25. The Sound
26. The Lost Complaint
27. Electric Harmony
28. New Delhi
29. Star / Fool
30. Texas
There’s No One Left in Brooklyn But You (2005)
[Assholes]
Death After Life
[I Will Keep the Bad Things from You]
[New Delhi]
[Electric Harmony]
31. For My Own Good
Air Stereo (2006)
32. I’ve Got You
33. Accidental Man
34. You Don’t Have to Like to Love Me (Tonight)
35. Golden Days
36. Louisville
37. Sell the Lie
38. Shiny Bruise
39. Heartbreaklist
40. Kung Fu Grip Kiss
41. I Am a Leaver
42. Graceless
43. Keep a Little Organ
44. God Bless America
Golden Days EP (UK) (2006)
[Golden Days]
45. She’s the NYC Skyline
[Sell the Lie]
46. You’re gonna Love Me
One Last Century (2009)
47. Soundtrack
48. Bastard of Midnight
49. Dandelion
50. Like It Is
51. 55 Pictures
52. Come to Me
53. Everything
54. Closer Than We Are
55. Jesus Could Be Right
56. Say
57. Down With the Ship
58. WWXII
No One Listens to the Band Anymore (2011)
59. No One Listens to the Band Anymore
60. Feast of Hearts
61. She Goes Around
62. Werewolves
63. The Great Unknown
64. Let’s Be Civilized
65. Death Defier
66. Last Day of the New Age
67. The Monster
68. The Experts
69. Sophia
70. The Same Way
Sweet Water Child: Lullabies for Getty (2011)
71. Baby Baby
72. Sweet Water Child
73. Star Parade
74. Little Angel
75. Heart of Trust
76. Sleepright Dreamkeep
77. My Sweet Baby
78. Oh, Peace
79. My Light
80. Coming Home Tonight
81. All of Your Fright
The Bedhead EPs (2014)
82. Death Metal and Disco
83. None of These Things
84. HELLp
85. Other People’s Drugs
86. Not So Bad
87. The Ballad of Eve and Randy Quaid
88. Crying Our Hearts Out
89. She Goes Down
90. Promise # 324,567
91. Honestly
92. Along the Way
93. Money and Shiny Things (And Drugs)
The Damnwells (2015)
94. Money and Shiny Things
95. Kentexas
96. The Girl That’s Not in Love with You
97. Lost
98. Wreck You
[She Goes Down]
99. Heavy Heart
100. Kill Me
101. This Ship of Ours
102. Too Old to Die Young
[None of These Things]
Alex Dezen (2016)
103. Ode to Ex-GirlFriends
104. A Little Less like Hell
105. If You Can Say ‘I Love You’ on a Greeting Card, How Can It Be True?
106. Leonardo
107. This Is the Last Song (I’ll Ever Write on This Guitar)
108. I Don’t Want to Be Alone When I Die
109. Elephant
110. I Have
111. Into the Hands of Hazelden
112. Reluctant Love Song