Remembering Move:
With a couple of tours under my belt and a few dozen new songs freshly written, I was ready and inspired to get back into the studio. Joel Levy again graciously rose to the occasion in full support and championed my plans to record the follow-up to MIRROR. I headed back into Criteria Recording Studios (The Hit Factory Criteria Recording Studios) re-teaming with studio engineer Keith (“Don’t Be Nervous!”) Rose, as well as 2 of my amazingly talented and creative friends, Jack Shawde (guitars) and Matthew Sabatella (bass, backing vocals).
For this album, I played the drum tracks myself which was a complete blast. For Keith having to record them, not so much (lol).
With MOVE, I made a conscious production effort to push the creative envelope and explore boundaries by using different colors, textures and musical energy. For instance, my friend Eric Davidson just happened to be a concert euphonium player which is IMO, is one of the most beautiful sounding instruments in the brass family. I brought him in to perform on “Holding on to You” and love how his part elevated the production. I also invited Joel Schantz (Natural Causes / Milk Can) to come in and record his awesome and unique style of guitar playing on a few songs, that when blended with Jack’s own fantastic performances, created a beautiful tension of sonic color and gorgeous ambiance.
It was great fun having Doug Leibinger & Ron Dziubla come in and track a complete saxophone ensemble using Ron’s arrangement and Doug sneaking in a melodica solo. That song was “Bang” and still is the best damn car commercial song that never was, also the best title in sign language for a song, ever (thank you, Christie Cohn).
Lastly, I had become a fan of and befriended fellow singer-songwriter, Brian Franklin who sang backup with Matthew and to this day, they are my 2 favorite people to sing with. 20 years later, MOVE is still one of my favorites. – xo Di