I am beyond thrilled to announce that the second Zhongyu album, called Super Z Attack Team, will be released in October on Right Brain Records. It will be available on Bandcamp, other streaming services, and as a limited-edition CD. Watch this space for more details as they become available, and follow on Bandcamp to get notifications.
Never did I imagine it would take nearly ten years!
By the time Zhongyu Is Chinese for Finally came out, I already had a number of other compositions completed, and of course I started thinking about the next album. The original plan was to call it After the End of Time, and I worked out a set of tunes and a running order for it. This is certainly a case where plans are mere fantasies, and my focus turned towards playing live shows in a trio configuration. That led to a whole new set of tunes being written.
Jim, Randy, and I played a bunch of shows in the Seattle area, and on a good night it was very special. People started asking about a new album that reflected the new sound. Really, people did — several of them.
Financially, I couldn’t handle an expense like that of the first album, so I adopted a DIY approach, recording the base tracks at home and then venturing to Jim’s house to record his parts and Randy’s for his. Eventually I had what I needed, and spent a really long time working out overdubs and tweaking the mixes.
Musically, it’s like a highly polished version of what we used to play live, but hopefully not so polished as to lose the energy of the music. But it’s time to put it out into the world and see what happens…
October 1 is the release date, just in time for Bandcamp Friday. Hint-hint.