John Dufilho is a busy man. Always has been. When he's not playing in his band Deathray Davies, he's drumming in Apples In Stereo and producing records, including local act Sealion's next one.
But, sometime early next year, he plans to release his most interesting project to date. Dufilho will put out an album of around 12 or 13 original songs sung only by guest vocalists. So far, he says he's happy with the project, which is almost complete.
"You know, kind of like how some people collect autographs, I was collecting vocal takes on my songs," Dufilho says from his studio. "It's a record I've been working on forever." One would think it takes quite a while to acquire vocal tracks from the impressive list of singers on this record.
Dufilho's album has songs sung by Ben Kweller, Chris Walla (Death Cab
For Cutie), Robert Schneider (Apples In Stereo), Salim Nourallah, Dylan
Silvers, Brandon Carr, Will Johnson, Sarah Jaffe, Marcus Striplin
(Pleasant Grove), and C.J. Davis. There are several more names, too,
that Dufilho wasn't ready to announce yet.
However, he did
mention that only a few months after the guest vocalist album is
released, it will be followed by the release of another Deathray Davies
album. The band, whose name could once be seen on marquees all over
town, has been quiet in recent years. But, Dufhilo says he hasn't
stopped working on music for the band. "I've got enough for about three
CDs," he says. "I'm trying to figure out in what way we exist these
days, other than me just constantly recording songs."
Even as
prolific as he's been with the guest vocalist record and Deathray
Davies, he's still had time to work on another band called Cantina,
whose music he describes as "'60s-inspired space rock." The band,
consisting of Dufilho, Jeff Ryan, Rich Martin, Andy Lester, and Jason
Garner, recorded an entire album in one night. "It was on my birthday,"
says Dufilho. "I got a studio together and just a ton of booze."
Sounds like fun.
No word on a release date for any of the records, but we should know soon.
