At the end of 2009 Joe and I pondered pulling the plug on Marqui Adora and letting the patient die in peace. We had lost Danny, singer/lyricist/guitarist/songwriter, to the culinary arts and travel abroad and felt maybe we should just start from a clean slate. It was a period of uncertainty about our musical futures but in the end we made a tentative decision to continue working under the banner of Marqui Adora. We made that choice because letting the songs we loved die on the vine seemed like an injustice to them and the work we put into them.
Because of our “day jobs” the two of us didn’t have a definite idea of when we could get back to music work at even a part time level together, so I began to forge ahead largely on my own. I started to work on some of our unfinished material with the idea of releasing a few instrumental songs before attacking what to do about lyrics and vocals in Danny’s absence.
As it happens in early 2010 I heard from Danny that he was coming back to Florida from Spain for a few months in the summer and had a hankering to record some of the unfinished songs if any would be ready when he came to town. I was rather excited by this turn of events and decided to be ambitious in my planning and schemes. I told Danny I was going to try to have an albums worth of songs ready for him to sing and that, for the sake of continuity in the recording, I would start from scratch and record all the parts before he started recording vocals. (In retrospect, what the fuck was I thinking!)
I started programming drums based on unfinished recordings from the past for about 18 songs. I quickly narrowed things down to 10 songs that I felt I could complete largely on my own since Joe, a soon to be father, was unlikely to be able to spare the time. After completing the drums I spent a month getting my bass and guitar chops back and then completed all the parts needed for Danny to track vocals. We spent the first two days in the studio and got his vocals completed for five songs with another two started. We both left that second day expecting to finish up over a few days the following week. That’s when Danny got what we usually call “the club”. It’s a cold, or something that musicians and DJs get a lot from staying in smoke filled rooms all night with people from all over the world and their various illnesses while drinking heavily.
As the time grew sorter before Danny would be returning to Spain, I started to think that we would be forced to settle for an EP worth of finished material. I consoled myself with the knowledge that I’d have another five songs ready for the next time Danny was in town. It happened that the week that he would be leaving his throat cleared up and we finished the final five songs in record time. To say we are both pleased would be an understatement. (I’m pretty sure I was grinning ear to ear.)
So as it stands at the moment I have ten songs that are candidates for a new Marqui Adora release. I’ve still got plenty of work before they are finished, including recording Howard’s guitar playing on at least one song, backing vocals from Joe and I, and several parts on acoustic guitar. Even with that in mind I can say without worry that we will have an album released before the end of the year that Danny will be singing on. That was not something I though would be happening four months ago.
I’ve kept fairly quite until today because I didn’t want to fail to deliver a finished product. I’m writing this because the hardest and most important parts of the recordings are completed and only the lighter drudge work remains.
Consider radio silence over...
And get excited.
-John Tooker
Marqui Adora
