Graham Patzner, the songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who fronts the Oakland band Whiskerman, said the songs he wrote for the band\u2019s new album, American Hell, were inspired by the current political climate.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were written over a period of years and just happened to become relevant as the time passed,\u201d Patzner said. \u201cThe narrative of the album is inherently American, but becomes a bit demonic as things progress. It has a bleak ending. If it were a film, it would be a horror movie.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we started the band, we were more folky and bluesy; some people called it ghost-folk,\u201d he continued. \u201cWe\u2019ve never been tied down to a specific genre. We\u2019ve always had arrangements that dip into many styles. This one leans more toward country and folk, with touches of rock, soul, punk and other stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n
American Hell is being released in two parts. Part I came out in January, Part II was released in May. The entire album will be released on CD and vinyl LPs later this year. \u201cThe songs span the whole trajectory of the band, stylistically,\u201d Patzner said. \u201cThe song \u2018Ram\u2019s Head\u2019 was on our first album, and it\u2019s one of our signature tunes. The arrangement has changed over the years. Once Charles Lloyd joined the band to play electric sitar, it became a crowd favorite, so it was great to get a definitive version of the song down.\u201d<\/p>\n
The music was going to be recorded at Brothers (Chinese) in Oakland, with the whole band\u2014Charles Lloyd and Jeremy Lyon on guitar, Will Lawrence on bass, drummer Dan Schwartz, and Patzner on lead vocals, organ, violin, trumpet, piano, synthesizer and guitar.<\/p>\n
Right after they began the process, the pandemic shut everything down and they had to rethink their approach. \u201cThe basic tracks were done live, then we tinkered with them over the years,\u201d Patzner said. \u201cThe overdubs were done in a lot of places, including the studio in my home and Jeremy\u2019s studio. We spent a lot of time polishing the tracks.\u201d<\/p>\n
American Hell, Part II opens with \u201cRam\u2019s Head,\u201d a song that describes the quest for the American Dream that ends in frustration for so many. A wash of ambient sounds introduces Lloyd\u2019s sitar hook, as the band comes in with a slow rock beat. Patzner\u2019s keening vocals describe his search for freedom, symbolized by the ram who is always just out of reach. The song ends with a long instrumental coda marked by sustained guitar notes, Patzner\u2019s wordless cries of anguish and atmospheric sounds that slowly fade away.<\/p>\n
\u201cEl Dorado\u201d uses the myth of a lost golden city to describe the slow collapse of capitalism and the pain it causes. A slide-guitar introduction and heavy bass piano notes give the song a country feel. The bass and drums lay down for a slow, somber tempo, as Patzner\u2019s mid-range vocals express the heartache he feels as he sees his dreams, and the nation, crumble. \u201cOh my lord look at the mess we have made \u2026\u201d he croons.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wrote \u2018El Dorado\u2019 a while ago,\u201d Patzner said. \u201cIt\u2019s about the futile attempt to find the ideal life and make a living as an artist or musician. As I mentioned, these songs were not meant to be intentionally relevant, but as things unfolded they became that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Patzner said he\u2019s played music since he was five years old. \u201cMy parents are classically trained musicians,\u201d he said. \u201cBoth of my brothers are as well. Anton plays violin, and Lewis plays cello.\u201d<\/p>\n
After dropping out of college, Patzner began playing music and made three solo albums with the help of his brothers. The band he started to play his songs live slowly evolved into Whiskerman.<\/p>\n
Patzner said the band was named after the title song of their eponymous debut, Whiskerman. \u201cIt was about a messianic figure that came back at the end of days,\u201d he said. \u201cOne night, after a show, a guy came up to us and said, \u2018I figured out who Whiskerman is. It\u2019s Jesus.\u2019 So I guess we\u2019re a Christian rock band?\u201d He laughed. \u201cI was heavily religious growing up, but I\u2019m not into the church anymore. I think religion has caused a lot of the problems in this world at this point.\u201d<\/p>\n
Whiskerman plays Saturday, July 18, at Point San Pablo Harbor, 1900 Stenmark Dr., Richmond. 510.233.3224. pspharbor.com<\/a>. For more info and music, visit whiskerman.com<\/a> and whiskerman.bandcamp.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Graham Patzner, the songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who fronts the Oakland band Whiskerman, said the songs he wrote for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":398636,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[160107,143,133092,145,144],"class_list":["post-398635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-east-bay-music","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-band","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=398635"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398635\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/398636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=398635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=398635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=398635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}