Portland friends, our amazing drummer Mark Powers has had a bit of a medical issue and we are helpless without him, so we will be rescheduling our November 2 show at Crystal Ballroom to give him a bit of time to heal and recover. Please hold on to your tickets and the new show date will be announced as soon as possible.

Thanks so much for your patience and well wishes, and we'll see you just as soon as we can! More info coming soon!

Electracoustics: celebrating the 20th anniversary of the 'Acoustics' album

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Portland, Oregon-based musician/engineer/producer Steve Drizos, aprofessional touring musician for more than twenty seven years and studioowner, who can currently be found behind the drums for Jerry Joseph and TheJackmormons or helming the board at his SE Portland recording studio, ThePanther, has recently released his sophomore full-length album, i love you nowleave me alone (Cavity Search Records).

Having worked with countless artists at The Panther, including Patterson Hood(Drive-By Truckers), Debbi Peterson (The Bangles), Spencer Tweedy, ChrisFunk (The Decembrists), and Scott McCaughey (R.E.M., Minus 5, The YoungFresh Fellows), as well as his wife, The Decemberists’ Jenny Conlee, Drizos isno stranger to both sides of the studio, culminating in his debut solo album,Axiom, which was released on Cavity Search Records in 2021. Written andrecorded during the start of the pandemic, Axiom was Drizos’ chance toexperiment in the studio and make a solo album, playing most of theinstruments himself. However, with i love you now leave me alone, he decidedto demo everything and build a band around the songs, resulting in a powerfulfollow-up that finds the songwriter side of him growing and evolving, deliveringanother strong collection of eight powerful songs that find influence in 90sguitar-rock, pop, and folk.

“My first record, Axiom, got a lot more attention and positive feedback than Iever could have imagined, so I felt really motivated to release a follow up assoon as possible,” Drizos says discussing the birth of i love you now leave mealone. “And where Axiom was very much done on my own, I wanted thisproject to be a band, tracking the songs live and having much morecollaboration. Once I had a batch of songs that I felt good about, I assembledthe players and got to work.”

The band includes drummer Scott Van Schoick, Tim Murphy (RoughCuts) onbass and backing vocals, Todd Wright on electric guitars and backing vocals,and his wife, Jenny Conlee on piano and electric piano.

“I spent a decent amount of time making demos of these songs that were prettyfleshed out,” he says. “The versions of the songs on the album are not very farfrom those demos, just played much better and with some much cooler ideasadded in.”

Whereas Axiom was introspective and about Drizos and his newfound sobriety,i love you now leave me alone focuses more on Drizos’ loved ones and hisrelationships with them.

“Most of the songs on this album are about my relationships with those closestto me. Some songs are pretty direct, like ‘troubled heart’ is a song directly formy wife, while others are more of an amalgamation of people in my life. Myfirst album was much more introspective, so I wanted this one to be looking outand talk about some of those relationships.”

But, even with deep love for those closest to him, the self-admitted introvertdecided to title the record with a saying he feels a lot. “I think it relates to thealbum in that the sentiment of ‘I love you, now leave me alone’ is relatable tomost introverts like myself,” he confesses. “Deeply loving those closest to us,but at the same time being pretty happy to be left alone. I had the title before Ihad any of the songs finished or even started. It kind of gave me a compassdirection as to what the record was going to be about.”

On the bouncy, warm pop-rocker “kick into touch,” which builds into a drivenrocker, Drizos sings:

Everyone I call home
Something I want you to know
You lift me up, you fill my soul
I love you, now leave me alone

“I think that pretty much sums up how I feel a lot of the times. I was worriedthat people would take that as being rude or insulting, but most everyone that’sheard the lyric or I tell them the album title laughs and says, ‘I get it!’ I’m notthe only one who feels this way.”

When asked what the highlight of the album is for him, Drizos beams withexcitement about the energy of the record, thanks to playing the songs live inthe studio with a full band.

“Overall, I think the energy of a band playing in a room together was capturedvery well on this record. Even though there was a decent amount of overdubs,the foundation of the songs were all tracked live and I think you can really feelthat. Songs like ‘boomerang’ and ‘beautiful nothing’ especially capture theenergy.”

Not only did Drizos work with a full band on his sophomore effort, but he alsoworked with a vocal coach to better deliver his vocals on this release.“I worked with an amazing singer and good friend, Rebecca Sanborn, as avocal producer/coach and she really pushed me to do things that I didn’t think Icould do. She took me out of my comfort zone and made me work for it and Icould not be more pleased with the results. As someone who doesn’t considermyself a strong vocalists, I am really happy with the results on this record.”

While the record sounds fresh and contemporary, it is heavily rooted in andinfluenced by 90s rock, something Drizos contributes to the music he keepscoming back to.

“[90s rock] resonates with me the most,” he admits. “Maybe at 50 years old itreminds me of a more innocent time in my life, maybe it’s just really familiarand comforting. I love the energy and larger than life aspect of music from thatera. Can it be overly earnest from time to time? Absolutely. But I’m not afraidto go there! As long as it’s not ALL like that. I guess it doesn’t feel like it was achoice to go in the direction of 90s rock, its just where I live most of the time.”

When Drizos recorded and released Axiom, he had no intentions to play any ofthose songs live, and thus didn’t. However, he approached i love you nowleave me alone differently, with live shows in mind.

“I approached the writing and the producing of the album with the idea ofplaying live shows in mind, which I did not do with Axiom. I hope that the liveshows are a pretty close representation of what the album sounds like. Since Idon’t really play live shows, at least as a band leader playing my songs, I’m notsure what to expect. I feel like I have found a great group of players that I feelreally comfortable with, so I would love to bring these songs to a live audience.”

The album’s first single, “brooklyn 97202,” is about his SE Portlandneighborhood.

“I chose this as the first single because I really wanted to release it in thesummer. It’s a summer song, as well as a good example and introduction ofwhat the band sounds like.”

“Almost everyday I walk the same route around my neighborhood,” hecontinues. “Most of the lyrics for this album I came up with on these walks.Last summer I felt hyper aware of the phenomenon that happens in the PacificNorthwest, after a long and dreary winter/spring, the lights come back on andeverything turns from grey to technicolor overnight. And there is a collective liftin everyone’s mood. The lights coming back on has definite parallels with theseasonal depression that a lot people suffer living in this area.”

With the album’s first single set for release July 21st, and the album set forrelease in early 2024, Drizos is excited for people to start hearing the record.And, while he made the record for himself, something he would listen to, he’snot shy about admitting he wants people to hear it and connect with it.

“All I’m doing is making music that I enjoy making and listening to, and hopethat others will get something out of it. I try my best to ride the line of believingthis record is really good, wanting people to hear it and enjoy it, and at thesame time not take any of it too seriously and remember its another record in along line of records that have come before and will come after.

“I hope it gets to people’s ears and they find something that they can relate toin it. I’m in a unique position where I’m not making a record for a particular fanbase or planning a big tour around the release of the album. So the stakes arerelatively low in those regards, which takes some of the pressure off. I lovemaking records, I love collaborating with people I trust and respect, and I willkeep doing that regardless. But at the same time I’m an insecure artist whowants people to like what I create.”