![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/chuck_lichtenbergeri.jpg\")
Photo by Sandlin Gaither<\/p><\/div>\n
Scales and Lichtenberger are longtime friends; Scales played on a few Stephaniesid projects, and the two admire each other’s musical approach. When the album project began, Lichtenberger gave Scales demos of 50 original songs. \u201cAnd he culled it down,\u201d Lichtenberger says. \u201cHe said, ‘Here’s the 20 we’re gonna use.’\u201d<\/p>\n
The end result is quite different from what the keyboardist originally had in mind. \u201cI thought maybe I’d be making an instrumental record,\u201d Lichtenberger says. \u201cHalf of the tunes I gave Jonathan were instrumentals.\u201d In the end, Scales chose only one lengthy instrumental piece, \u201cUndiagnosed,\u201d to which an a cappella<\/i> introduction would be added. The other initially wordless compositions were brief snippets. \u201cI asked Jonathan, ‘Do you want me to flesh these out?’\u201d Lichtenberger recalls. But Scales told him, \u201cNo, these are going to be the interludes.\u201d<\/p>\n
In its finished form, This is What Happens When…<\/i> is a collection of songs in a variety of styles \u2013 some with a character that will be familiar to fans of another of Lichtenberger’s former bands, the Archrivals \u2013 with brief linking tracks. But the interludes feature Lichtenberger’s spoken-word performances on top of the instrumental tracks.<\/p>\n
Lichtenberger’s forthright and unblinking manner of dealing with traumatic episodes in his past characterizes many of the interludes. But it took some doing to get to a point where he felt comfortable with that approach. \u201cAt first, I was like, ‘Oh, that makes me feel uncomfortable,’\u201d he says. And once Lichtenberger started coming up with the words for those interludes, it was Scales’ turn to express reservations. \u201cHe was like, ‘Oh, that\u2019s too much,’ and I was like, ‘That\u2019s what I wrote, dude.’ And then he got comfortable with it.\u201d Lichtenberger says that eventually both he and Scales became convinced they were going in the right direction. \u201cWe just kept upping the ante back and forth,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Half of the tracks on This is What Happens When…<\/i> are vignettes, generally jaunty pop melodies overlaid with Lichtenberger’s frank \u2013 and occasionally funny \u2013 storytelling. The album opens with \u201cFifteen,\u201d a tale of teenage frustration. \u201cAfrican American\u201d is a kinetic drum solo with Lichtenberger’s nervy spoken-word on top. \u201cTwenty-two\u201d is a fetching lounge-jazz number featuring a brief tale that quickly unravels. And \u201cSomewhere on a Highway in Texas\u201d weds an atmospheric piano piece to what sounds like someone reaching the end of their emotional tether.<\/p>\n
But This is What Happens When…<\/i> has bouncy pop tunes, as well, like \u201cForever\u201d and \u2013 despite its title \u2013 \u201cThrow Up.\u201d Lichtenberger’s gift for off-kilter melodies that remain accessible is the musical thread that holds the album together. Most of the arrangements are built around a spare trio: Lichtenberger on piano and vocals plus Jay White on guitar and drummer Shariq Tucker. Other friends help out on selected tracks; Jonathan Pearlman turns in a searing lead guitar solo on \u201cNighttime.\u201d <\/p>\n
Lichtenberger admits that he’s not sure how he wants listeners to take his latest collection of songs. \u201cI don\u2019t even know what I<\/i> want to have happen,\u201d he says. \u201cYou can listen to the lyrics and get into that aspect of it. I\u2019m hoping it can be treated like a singer-songwriter record and<\/i> a rock record.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The last few years have seen a lot of changes for Asheville, N.C.-based songwriter and keyboardist Chuck Lichtenberger. His marriage and band ended, and he faced some serious mental health […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14599,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,49,51,62],"tags":[3427,2936,2034,2035],"class_list":["post-14598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interview","category-new-release","category-pop","category-rawk","tag-chuck-lichtenberger","tag-jonathan-scales","tag-stephanies-id","tag-stephaniesid","cat-41-id","cat-49-id","cat-51-id","cat-62-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14598"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14598\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14600,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14598\/revisions\/14600"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}