Falkner Eyes Solo Album, Plays With McCartney

Versatile pop-rocker Jason Falkner, five years removed from the release of 
his last full-length solo album, "Can You Still Feel?" (Elektra), is nearing 
completion of its follow-up while balancing multiple side projects and 
musical endeavors.

Among his recent musical adventures was a recording session earlier this 
year in Los Angeles with rock legend Paul McCartney. "That was amazing," 
Falkner tells Billboard.com. "It was just me and Paul and this drummer, 
James Gadson, who was the original drummer for Bill Withers."

Falkner was called into the sessions by producer Nigel Godrich (who produced 
"Can You Still Feel?") and he played guitar on a number of songs with 
McCartney. "He's doing different sessions with different producers," Falkner 
says of the former Beatle, "but nobody knows ... if those sessions are gonna 
be his record."

McCartney wasn't familiar with his collaborator's musical history when they 
met, so Falkner gave him a copy of "Bedtime With the Beatles," the 
instrumental children's lullaby album Falkner released through Sony/Wonder 
in 2001. He admits it "blew his mind" after McCartney gave him a glowing 
review of the disc the next time they met.

Other upcoming projects for Falkner include producing nascent L.A. band the 
Adored, which he says "sounds like early Generation X and Buzzcocks," and 
spending three weeks in Norway producing a new album by Norwegian popster 
Magnet. But finishing his own album at his home recording studio is high on 
the priority list.

"I've been guilty of using irony to a pretty severe degree [in the past]," 
he reckons, musing on the new material. "What I've been trying to do with 
this newer stuff is be more direct, and tell a story without relying on such 
abstract imagery. And musically, I've been trying to weed out a little bit 
of the math rock," he adds with a chuckle.

As a preview of the upcoming solo album, Falkner will release the EP "Bliss 
Descending" on Oct. 19 through Red Eye Distribution. The disc collects five 
tracks Falkner originally compiled to sell to fans on his January/February 
West Coast tour opening for Travis. He expects "one or two" of its songs to 
wind up on the full-length.


-- Troy Carpenter, N.Y.

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