This collection of songs took a while to come together before I could record and release them. The melodies, harmonic and rhythmic ideas and grooves seemed to be pulling me in a more aggressive direction. Hmm. It seemed that my musical world has been rocking a bit more lately… well… combined with a lot of alternatively tuned piano music…

I had the opportunity to go into Sweetwater Studios and finally record my long time “A-Team Road Band”—Alex Skolnick and Joel Taylor—live! We recorded some road-tested tunes, sans-click, and “Hold Fast”, which ended up being the title track.

I headed back in the studio with Shawn Dealey behind the board for a second Sweetwater sessions to record some full-on prog rock tracks with Alex, and Randy McStine, whom I had asked to write lyrics to (and sing on) two tracks. The drums for these songs were recorded remotely by Gergo Borlai. I also had Bubby Lewis add some bass; Greg Ellis (my old David+David bandmate) added percussion; Andrea Whitt swooned in on pedal steel; Steve Ferlazzo provided Promethean keys, and Michael Lee Firkins slid in on guitar. They were all additions to the feel of the live recorded rhythm tracks that make this music breathe.

Remote mixing with Sean worked initially, but the logistics made it impossible. I then turned to my ol’ pal Javier Reyes (Animals As Leaders) to finish mixing the songs, and get a different and more contemporary set of ears for the sounds I was looking for. After much gnashing of teeth, I do believe that we found a way to co-exist and came out with mixes much superior to what they would have been had I been left to my own devices.