Professor And The Madman Share New Single “Tolerant World”

Professor and the Madman have released “Tolerant World,” the second single from the band‘s Dreamworld album.  Dreamworld will be available August 7 on vinyl, CD, and download from FullerTone Records. 

Professor and the Madman is a musically adventurous rock group fronted by songwriters Sean Elliott and Alfie Agnew, and backed by the legendary rhythm section of Paul Gray and Rat Scabies. This lineup of the Professor And The Madman has recorded three albums together, with portions of Dreamworld being tracked at Abbey Road Studio 2 in London. 

Agnew’s day job as a mathematics professor at California State University in Fullerton sparked the idea for Professor And The Madman’s “Tolerant World.’ “In some sense, the song is a pushback against my peers,” he explains. “Many Gen-Xers beat their chest and tell exaggerated stories of how rough they had it in the old days (in some cases, that’s true), while they condemn millennials for being soft or whatever. At its core, this song is an expression of the difficulty in adapting to a rapidly changing world. The song’s narrator is smart enough to see the positives of the new generation’s attitudes, but admits that it’s not easy to shed the attitudes, beliefs, and communication style you grew up with.” 

The melodic power pop of “Tolerant World” is just one of the delights to be discovered on Dreamworld. The album’s musical foundation is inspired by 1960s baroque pop, but cocktail jazz interludes, classical flourishes, backwards guitar, and playful psychedelia sit comfortably alongside the tempest of punk-pop and alternative rock. “12 Strings and Tambourines” and “Temple of Madness” feature virtuoso performances from Gray and Scabies. Elliott and Agnew trade off lead vocals on all the selections (except for a rare duet on “Songs in My Head,” to which Agnew also contributes trumpet) while also handling the lead and rhythm guitar parts, and keyboards. 

Elliott and Agnew have deep roots in Southern California’s rock scene. The former was a bassist for the heavy metal group Mind Over Four in the 1980s, while the latter played guitar in the Adolescents, a punk group closely associated with his six-string slinging brothers, Rikk and Frank Agnew. 

By the early ‘90s, the pair were playing guitar together in the punk group D.I. Although they enjoyed the adrenalin rush of the band’s live shows, they also felt boxed in by punk’s strict orthodoxy. They toyed with the idea of collaborating on more expansive music, but Agnew’s academic pursuits took him out of state for many years. 

In 2014, the pair reconnected at a local show. Shortly after, they began work on Professor and the Madman’s debut album, Good Evening, Sir! (2016). Since then, they have also released Election (2016), Disintegrate Me (2018), Live at the 100 Club (2019), and Séance (2020).