Daniel Kleederman, Announces Solo LP; Shares Music Video

Daniel Kleederman is best known for his work as musical director and touring guitarist for Bartees Strange – today he announces his debut solo LP, Another Life (out April 4 on Grand Kid Records) and shares the first single/video from it, “Compromised Positions.” 

Kleederman offers more context for “Compromised Positions”:

“”Compromised Positions” is a psychological, cosmic thriller about feeling the weighty responsibility of honesty and love while caught in precarious cycles of seduction and codependency. Time, space, and truth warp throughout as the gravitational pull towards the black hole of a breakup gets stronger and stronger. 

It’s the only song on the record that went through a serious editing process – there is an earlier version of this song that is about 8 minutes long that I may release one day.” 

“A Knock At The Door,” the opening track of Another Life, the debut album by Daniel Kleederman, starts with the warped call of a bell toll: the unmistakable sound of a closing chapter. It’s a motif that adorns the record, and acts as a formal nod to the sacredness of love and loss, and the haunting, inescapable sign of deep knowing that the time to let go has arrived. Known for his work as a guitarist and collaborator for indie rock powerhouse Bartees Strange, Kleederman has quietly been working up to his own full-length release, co-produced with longtime musical partner, Chris Connors (Bartees Strange, Holy Hive). 

 “I need to learn the meaning of work,” Kleederman declares in his tender, Buckley-esque timbre, before the chorus bursts into a golden catharsis of gut-level realization, and 4-part vocal harmony. The lyric is a grand one – a far-reaching, inquisitive declaration that sets the stage for this genre-defying, behemoth of a record. But as Kleederman wonders, the body of work itself seems to answer: the meaning is in the monuments – the memorializing of precious relationships and breakups; psychedelic epiphany and tortuous heartbreak; foggy hairpin bends and sweet, unforeseen surprises. 

Anyone who sees Kleederman perform understands his intimate and loving relationship to his instrument; in his hands, the guitar appears both an extension of self and a portal to other worlds.  He spent his own childhood in the hills of Western, MA, waiting for the front door to shut – the final signal that his parents left to take the dog for a walk; now he could turn up his amp, close his eyes, and jump on stage alongside The Beatles and B.B. King, and the various other artists tucked away in his parents’ record collection. Kleederman’s friendship with the guitar remains a timeless force, ever-present in his current work.
 
In college (Vassar College), Daniel met a handful of brilliant musicians and friends who would shape the path of his life, including co-producer Chris Connors (Bartees Strange, Holy Hive) and drummer and roommate-for-8-years, Alex Goldberg (L’Rain, Cassandra Jenkins, Jessica Pratt). Though all three were dedicated and inspired students of many disciplines, music called, and Daniel, along with his friends, funneled down to New York to continue the dreamwork.

For a near-decade, Daniel immersed himself in New York City’s alternative music scene, lending his unmistakable guitar-voice and musical and collaborative sensitivities to a wide range of gigs and art projects; one of which, in the very beginning of 2020, was with soon-to-be indie powerhouse, Bartees Strange. As covid began to rage in NYC, Kleederman headed back to woods of Western, MA, reconnecting with family and his home place. There, he completed his training and certification as a life coach (CTI) and fell in love – with people, with birds, with photography, and again, with music – eventually recording a debut EP called Grand Kid (a not-so-secret moniker), before expanding to life on the road as music director and lead guitarist for Bartees Strange. 

While Another Life unearths the wild journey that romantic partnership can take us on, the making of the record itself reflected the workings of a different kind of meaningful relationship – that of his longstanding creative partnerships. Kleederman met with co-producer Connors weekly for nearly two years to chip away at this highly detailed and ambitious record, ultimately creating something that might best be described as progressive/post-americana. It is the kind of record that could only be made amongst trusted collaborators willing to experiment, chase, fight, forgive, and persevere.  

Stand-out track, “Compromised Positions” wrestles with the mind and heart, mimicked by frantic fretwork and unpredictable, elastic rhythms. Caught in a cycle of his own making, Kleederman runs through a hall of mirrors, searching for the signs that put him there in the first place. It’s a visceral, psychedelic frame for the album’s equally layered thematic voyage, culminating in an intrepid spiritual revelation marked by Kleederman’s soaring guitar and Goldberg’s fiery drumming. 

As with most real-life revelations and pains, there comes comic relief. “They’ll Be”––along with its intro track “Don’t Mind Waiting (To Die)”––teems with an unapologetic, almost hysterical silliness: there’s the over-the-top slide & baritone guitar duet (one of many outrageous guitar solos on the record), plus a hearty key-change to boot. “Chris [Connors] and I gave ourselves full permission to go for it and say yes to whatever truly tickled us in the recording process,” Kleederman explains. There is abundance in sincerity; that to live courageously is to voice the entire spectrum of pain and pleasure; judgement and compassion; depression and catharsis; humor and complete seriousness. 

Another Life closes, appropriately, with “Answers,” the backside to the Revolver-esque, lost-in-the-world maze of “Mornings,” where Kleederman simply repeats the mantra “You’ve got all the right answers, boy” over an ocean-sized riff. It’s a prophetic statement for all, somehow coming from the past, the present, and the future all at once; but that’s how Kleederman’s world seems to work, a life close-to-the-heart, with an ear to the ground and the gut, searching for the answers there all along. A real trip.