Taylor Mills and Todd Sucherman Keep Music in the Family

By Sterling Whitaker

It is often said of a young  couple in love that they “make beautiful music together”. In the case of Austin-based musicians Taylor Mills and Todd Sucherman, those words have never been more literally true.

With the release of Mills' solo album Lullagoodbye, on the self-owned, independent Aqua Pulse Records, Mills and Sucherman (in his role as co-producer) have put forth a collection of songs that confounds the typical expectations of the “girl singer” genre by recording an album that hearkens back to  the days when female singer/songwriters like Carole King and Carly Simon ruled the airwaves. Though Mills did not write the songs for Lullagoodbye, the songs choices reflect a mature sensibility that showcases  the singer's ability to convey a strong melody without resorting to the vocal gymnastics so heavily favored by so many 'American Idol' wannabes. By delivering  well-written songs without screaming through each and every phrase in an attempt to seek Mariah Carey-esque ego gratification, Mills sets herself apart from the pack with an album of strong performances that point out the inherent qualities of the songs, not unlike the vocal strengths of one of her stated influences, Karen Carpenter.

The album is not only a family affair in fact, but in spirit: in addition to working closely together as spouses, Mills and Sucherman reached out to their extended musical families for the album. Mills is a vocalist in Beach Boys guru Brian Wilson's band, and her legendary boss makes an appearance  in the background vocals for “Cradle Me”; Sucherman is the drummer in Styx, and superstar bandmate Tommy Shaw lends his voice to “Genie In A Bottle”.  Additionally, Scott Bennett  -  Sucherman's ex-bandmate in The Falling Wallendas, and Mills' current bandmate in the Brian Wilson Band  -  wrote many of the songs, played multiple instruments, and even co-produced the album with Sucherman.

I spoke with Taylor Mills and Todd Sucherman by phone from their home in Texas during a break from each of their touring schedules. I found Mills, at least initially,  surprisingly soft-spoken for a person who sings in public for a living, perhaps a bit uncomfortable with the interview process itself. As the conversation progressed Taylor seemed more relaxed and more comfortable speaking on behalf of herself and her album, which she is clearly  -  and deservedly  -  proud of, and she gave me an interview that I really enjoyed, and I also thought truly represented her work.

By contrast, I had interviewed Todd Sucherman at length a few years ago for a book project about Styx (www.thegranddelusion.com), and he was exactly as I remembered  -  funny and extremely verbose.  This seems like a marriage of, if not exactly opposites, then differing personalities; yet in speaking to   them I could sense the love and affection that they share, as well as the pride each of them has in Lullagoodbye.

Sterling Whitaker: How did this album come about at this particular time?

Taylor Mills: I'd been wanting to do it for a long time, and the timing was just right for Todd and myself and Scott Bennett to get together and put our minds together and actually go through with it. It's very exciting to say, “It's all done!” (Laughs).

Todd Sucherman: I knew it was something that she wanted to do, but she never put any pressure on myself or herself to do it. You know, we have various friends that are songwriters or whatnot, and over the course of time we'd have the Ipod on shuffle, and a song would come on written by either Scott Bennett or Nick Markos, and I'd sort of wonder aloud, “Wow, you'd sound good singing this. This could work for something.” And the more that sensation happened, the more we started to formulate a game plan of what we could or would want to do, musically and artistically.

Taylor: I knew I wanted to use Scott [Bennett]. Some of his songs I have loved for a while. Then we started listening to some of our other friends, really, that are great songwriters. Definitely I knew that I wanted Scott and Todd to produce together. Todd has an amazing ear for music, and he and Scott have worked together before, so I knew it would be really, really good.

Sterling: What was your litmus test in choosing what songs made the record?

Taylor: The test would have been, which song do I really think that I can sing, that would sound great, that people would love, that I wanted to put out.

Todd: It grew organically, but there were definitely at least another three to five that were in the running, and for whatever reason they just got whittled out. Again in a very organic sort of way, whether it was a democratic agreement between Taylor, Scott and myself, or you know, just one day a particular song can hit you  a certain way and you just think, 'Nah, that's out'. But everything grew very organically.

Sterling: Todd, the role of “producer”  is nebulous and can include anything from working on tracks, to choosing songs, to engineering, to making sandwiches. What was your role in this?

Todd: Yes to everything you just said, including the sandwich part. (Laughs). From choosing the material, to the actual completion, this was really the first time that I've had the experience of essentially having executive say over every sound that occurs on the record. Which is a wild step out of my norm of being a session musician; or I consider myself a session musician. I was for certainly a very long time. But to actually see a project through from its conception all the way to designing the layout and artwork and photo shoot for the record was a completely new and exhilarating experience for me.

 It certainly was not the easiest thing in the world to do, partly because we moved to Austin [from Los Angeles]  in the middle of the project. That certainly did not expedite the project.

 We worked around both of our touring schedules, and then having to fly to Los Angeles;  tons of plane flights, rental cars, hotels, and/or sleeping in unsavory locations. (Laughs). It really was a massive labor of love, and to have it come out to exceed -   from my perspective  -   to exceed what we set out to do, artistically, is incredibly satisfying and addictive.

Taylor: We had to make trips back [to Los Angeles], rent cars and stay places. So it was really tricky. That threw a little wrench into the whole thing, but we were determined to finish and make it really great.

Sterling: There are maybe a couple of songs with straight melodies on this record, but what really strikes me about the songs choices is how many of the songs have very challenging melodies. Is that something that draws you to a song?

Taylor: Yes, I love that! I mean, simple melodies are great, too, but I love something that can take you somewhere that you're not expecting to go. That's what I love about great songwriters that can take you somewhere, like Brian Wilson. (Laughs). He can do it. He's the best at that. Listen to “Don't Worry Baby”  and some other songs, it's just amazing.

Sterling: Do you think that working with him has opened you up to that, made you aware of it in a way  you weren't before?

Taylor: I definitely do think that working with Brian has made me look at music differently. Absolutely.  You can't help but be opened up to new things when you hear some of the songs that I had never heard before I got this gig with Brian.

Sterling: How did that opportunity come about? I understand it was through Todd, indirectly.

Taylor: It was definitely through Todd. He was the drummer for Brian in 1999, and I believe he was speaking to Joe Thomas, who was Brian's musical director at the time, and Joe thought maybe he'd add a few girls. Todd thought of me because we'd played together a few months before that with a friend of mine, Steve Cole. I had sang backgrounds for his show, and Todd was playing drums, and that's how we met. A few months later, that's when Todd said, “I met this girl a few months ago; you should call her and audition her.” We weren't dating or anything at that time. (Laughs). We were just friends.

Sterling: What did your audition consist of?

Taylor: I went into the studio in St. Charles, Illinois, where Brian had a house and a studio. Brian wasn't actually there. All the other guys working with him were there, and they just wanted me to sing along to some tracks. They pulled out “Surf's Up”, which I had never heard before. And not knowing, really, what I was getting myself into, I was  like, “Well, it's just like any other audition. Do you have the lyrics? Can I listen to it for five minutes?”  Then later on everybody said, “Oh my God, 'Surf's Up' is one of the most amazing songs.” And it was. I just didn't know what I was getting myself into. (Laughs). So I sang along to that, and a couple of other tracks, and they thought it sounded great, and I got the gig.

Sterling: Todd told me once that you blew him off when he first asked you out. (Laughs).

Taylor: (Laughing). Well, he has a harsher recollection of that than I do. Like I said, we had met at a Steve Cole show that we were doing in Chicago at the House of Blues. We met at the rehearsals a few days before the show, and in between those two days he had called, and I just hadn't called him back yet. He wanted to just take me out for a drink or whatever, and he says, of course, that I blew him off, which I didn't mean to.  I was just busy . . . I think! (Laughs). But I couldn't resist his charms once we were in rehearsals with Brian for two weeks. So he got me in the end.

Sterling: What was it like working together as spouses? The role of a producer is one that inherently, at times, means offering up criticism when things are not working; how difficult is it to separate the professional from the personal?

Taylor: I would say that most of the time, we were really good. There were a few times when I was getting emotional because I wasn't getting something, and the way he was  saying it was maybe . . . it's that thing that can happen when you know someone really well. And it was partly the intense schedule that we had. We would go into LA, and we'd only have a few hours, so it was one of those stressful situations. But really, on the whole, it was a joy, because we were on the same page. We wanted the best product. We wanted to have the most energy and the most emotion that fit, and he wouldn't let it go until it was there, and I wouldn't, either. So it's good.

Todd: The thing that I had to be very wary of is that I know I can get very excited when we're on the verge of getting it, whatever we're working on. If I can see that we're so close to having it be the perfect line in the perfect section as I envision it in my head, that I have a tendency to get excited and/or talk very, very fast, and  have it seem like I'm talking at you, as opposed to coaching you on. Obviously Taylor is a woman, and it doesn't matter what you say to a woman, it's how you say it. (Laughs). You could say, “That take was total shit,” but if you said it in a really sweet, loving way, it would get over. I sometimes lack that ability.

Taylor: You  never said that to me!(Laughs).

Todd: Yes, it's just to illustrate a point that it's not what you say, it's how you say it. And that was the biggest challenge for me, being that here's my wife/best friend out there, and not just a fellow band member or some guy that's paying me or whatever. I can be very candid, much to my detriment, at times. So I just had to be very wary of that. I'd be lying if I said there were no tense moments. But all in all, in my memory at least, some of the more tense sessions yielded my favorite vocal takes.

Sterling: How did you go about choosing the keys for the songs?

Todd: Obviously that was of paramount consideration, so that was a process that we had to go through on each song, just to find the sweet spot. Taylor can  really sound great in a lower range, which is a place where not a lot of female singers really excel. They have to get up in the high range, the belting, the vocal gymnastics range to show their stuff. And while Taylor has that ability as well, she can really be engaging  in her lower register. So we wanted to make sure that that was going to be exemplified  in the performances as well, and make sure that nothing was out of reach and nothing was too low. We just had  to find that sweet spot for the entire piece. And also, certain songs sound strange in certain keys, so there were times that we had to change something because all of a sudden  it just didn't sound right in a certain key. So there  was great care and consideration given to the keys of all the songs.

Sterling: I was a little bit surprised by the drum performances on the record. Of course I'm coming at this from the viewpoint of someone whose familiarity with Todd Sucherman is mainly through Styx, and the bulk of that is pretty active drumming, so I was surprised that the drums and percussion on this record are very understated in a way that calls attention to the songs, rather than the performances.

Taylor: He can play any style of music and make it great. When he plays  -  as far as a singer goes, he just makes it easy for everyone else in the band to do their job. You know, when you're with a drummer that doesn't play very well, you feel like you have to keep time and you have to be up on that. Todd just delivers everything to you, and you just don't have to worry about it. He's brilliant that way.

He can also form a song like no one else. The highs and lows, those little things that just add so much. And he did that on my record. I felt like every little nuance that he put in there fit. It wasn't just to show off; it fit with what was being said, it fit the songs, and it was beautiful.

Todd: That's the issue -  or sometimes the problem -  with being known as  a band member; especially a band member where I didn't come in and create most of the things I'm playing. Honestly, the type of playing that I did on Taylor's record I think is more true to who I am as a musician and as a drummer, and is more true to the type of music that I listen to and gravitate toward. It felt so wonderful to be able to  play that music and have it come out ideally, exactly what I was going for from my perspective, and what we were going for. But the truth will remain that I will probably be best known for the enthusiastic and bombastic drum work in the band Styx. I grew up playing jazz, so this is just one side of my playing.

 Artistically one of the greatest periods for me was through 1991 to 1996, when I was doing a lot of jingles in Chicago. Now, it may not be one's artistic goal to play on Budweiser and Acura commercials, but every day I was in different  situations, from symphonic playing, to jazz quartet, to here's a banjo and an accordion, to a full-on Pearl Jam-sounding thing, to an old Stax Motown kind of thing.  So every day was different, and you had to really approach these pieces of music, even if it was a sixty-second commercial for Sears or whatever. You're getting hired by music producers, and you're  playing with other musicians of tremendous caliber, and you really had to get a certain vibe that they were going for. I took pride in being able to play all facets of twentieth century music stylistically correct. (Pause). I probably digressed a lot there! (Laughs).

Sterling: By contrast, in Styx the job consists primarily of  playing many of the same songs every night, and it takes up the bulk of your time. Do you get to  squeeze in any session work between Styx commitments?

Todd: It's very difficult, and it's actually something that I'm wrestling with at the moment, because it's something that I miss. Quite simply, if you're out on the road for nine months, it's very hard to build up your session clientele. Virtually impossible, actually. And when I do the odd bit here and there, it's wonderful, and I really miss doing that. But you know, the grass is always greener; I also remember being in the studio all the time, and thinking, 'Gee, I wish I could play out in front of people.' So again, everything is trying to achieve a balance.

Right now it's just been heavier on the live situation, and that's one of the reasons why, when we just took two months off here, I went in and  filmed my drum instructional DVD, that has four songs from Taylor's record featured in it, as well as three songs from Styx and a song from Jerry Goodman, who is the violinist in the Mahavishnu Orchestra. Kind of a somewhat wide spectrum of music. So that was something that I did in my two months off. Some other artistic process to keep myself busy, and at the same time do something that I think is sort of passing on as much knowledge as I could to any drummers that are open to hear  what I had to say.

Sterling: A lot of Lullagoodbye features Scott Bennett on multiple instruments. In your role as producer, did you actually sit with him and direct his performances on the tracks?

Todd: A good deal was done that way. Scott also recorded some things on his own and it was sort of up for my consideration. He emailed some MP3s and whatever. Scott is one of the most talented musicians I have ever had the opportunity to work with or hear, and one of Scott's things is that he – like myself  -  has a tendency to get very excited, and sometimes I would need to pull him back just a little bit, just to leave a little bit more space, because he is very exuberant, as I tend to be -  almost to his detriment, sometimes. One of the greatest compliments Scott gave me was, he thanked me for pulling him back  upon listening to the completed record. And it's because Eric Clapton didn't need to make an appearance playing some blues things at certain points of the song. (Laughs). I kinda liked to have some more atmospheric space and organic breathiness about it. But Scott is . . . he plays every instrument at a professional recording, greasy, grooving level. He's just an astonishing talent. His own material . . .  he really should be a household name. But he's been a behind-the-scenes guy for quite a while now.

Sterling: Both Brian Wilson and Tommy Shaw lend their voices to this record in guest performances. How did that come about?

Taylor: You know, doing backgrounds for Brian, I just thought it would be really cool, and possible, that he would come in and do backgrounds for my  record. I thought it was kinda funny and kinda cool at the same time. I did go to them while we were on tour at one point, and I asked he and his wife Melinda, who is great   -  I love her  -  and they both said, “Absolutely, just let us know when.” He had also been working with Scott Bennett during part of our working together, on the new  record that Brian is working on. So it kinda worked out that he was already there, and he came in and did some backgrounds for me. That was really great. I was thrilled that he did that for me.

 As far as Tommy Shaw, he was ready and willing and so cool. He and his wife came out to Redondo, and we had a great few hours of just having fun in the studio. He really, really made that song [“Genie in a Bottle”] great. That song was good, and I wasn't quite sure, and then when he sang on it, to me it just made the level of the song go way up. I was thrilled.

Sterling: Harmony singing is obviously one of his greatest strengths.

Taylor: Yeah, he's great. He's brilliant. His voice just rings like a bell, and it was just so much fun. We had fun doing it.

Todd: I remember “Genie In A Bottle” was a song on the first Falling Wallendas record, but when Scott and Allen Keller came back from New York from the mastering sessions, they had made the decision to cut that song from the record, which I thought was lunacy. I thought that was, in essence, cutting the clear hit single off the record.

 So I always kept that song in my back pocket, figuring, 'I'm gonna do something with that song one day'. I didn't know what, I just always loved that song, and I loved the way the song made me feel. It just seemed like a roll-the-convertible-top-down-and-go-for-a-summertime-drive. So that song obviously made an appearance on this record, and that was one of the first songs that I had earmarked for the project. Of course Taylor loved it as well. So that was just sort of waiting around for a little over ten years to be made properly. (Laughs).

Sterling: Another guest vocalist who makes his recorded lead singing debut on this album is none other than Todd Sucherman.

Taylor: Well, yes! (Laughs). That was a surprise, actually, for him and for all of us. I was doing my vocal for “Wish Me Well”, and I was going to sing the whole song, but  there's a point where . . . the song is in the original key. That's the only cover song on the record, from The Blue Nile, and we did it in the original key, and he's a male singing the song. So when I went to this certain point, it didn't lift. The song wasn't lifting in this one point the way it would if it was a male vocal doing it.

Todd: It wasn't working. I was sitting behind the console, and I was looking at the lyrics; “Wish Me Well” is a tremendously sad breakup song, excruciatingly sad, and I was looking at the lyrics, and the bridge seemed like that could have been the male point of view, and I remember a song on one of Paula Cole's records where Peter Gabriel  came in on the bridge, and it was just such a sonically interesting thing to hear his husky voice come in after hearing this very delicate female voice. And I thought, 'Hmm, that could work.'

Taylor: Todd was behind the glass, and he just looked at me and he said, “You know, maybe I should sing it, because it's not lifting the way we want it to.” And then he realized quickly that, “Oh my God, I just offered my vocals to the song.” And it was great! It's perfect for the song. It worked out way better than I ever originally thought. It was just one of those things that just happened right on the spot.  (Laughs). He was very nervous. It was cute.

Todd: Scott Bennett was not at the session, and I thought, 'You know what, let me run out there and just throw it down to see if this idea even works, and then  we'll have Scott do it when he comes in later today.' So I went out there, I put the headphones on and I just sang the four or five lines, whatever it is, and both Taylor and Ike, our engineer, were giving me the double thumbs up with this really, really serious look, and I was like, “What, what, what?” And they said, “That's it -  you; you're gonna do it.”  I thought, 'No!' and they said, “Yes, that's it, you're gonna do it.” And then immediately my stomach started gurgling, thinking about, 'Oh my goodness, I'm actually singing lead on something, I've never done that before; everybody's gonna hear me sing.' I started to feel like I might have some digestive issues with that notion. (Laughs). But it was just one of those happy accidents, and I'm glad it ended up that way. God, for two jovial people, we really created  a melancholy record that ends on a sad note. (Laughs).

Sterling: I was a little bit surprised that you're actually a talented singer. (Laughs). I guess I shouldn't say “surprised”; but you know, a lot of the time when you hear somebody that doesn't usually sing is going to sing,  it ends up kinda sucking. (Laughs). You know, like, “God, I wish he hadn't done that.”

Todd: (Laughing). Thank you for not putting me in that category!

Taylor: He's got a great voice, and he actually has perfect pitch, which makes me crazy. (Laughs). Because I have relative pitch, but he has perfect pitch. He can sing almost any song; if you want to know the original key, he can sing it, and it's in the original key. It's crazy. I hate it. (Laughs).

Sterling: This record is, if not exactly a concept record, then a record that has somewhat of a running narrative thread through the songs, even though the songs were written by different songwriters at different times. Is that deliberate?

Todd: It just sort of happened. When we were nearing the completion stage, invariably you start thinking about how you want to sequence a record. The sequence that we went with just had this arc of a failed relationship, starting with self-discovery, self-doubt, finding love, trying to hang onto it . . . it all sounds a bit corny when I try to put it into words like that, but it sort of organically has the shape of a relationship that ultimately fails, with the last song being goodbye. And then when we thought of a title for the record, Lullagoodbye seemed to make sense to us, which is also taken from a line in “Cradle Me”, which is, “Sing for me a lullagoodbye,” and Lullagoodbye seemed to make sense because it ends so quietly with the goodbye, and it was also a line from a song on the record that I think has really brilliant lyrics, that being “Cradle Me”.

Sterling: Are you doing any solo concert dates to support Lullagoodbye?

Taylor: I haven't really done any, because we've been very busy with our other bands that  we have to be a part of; and we love that. But we don't have any plans right now, because the next step in my situation is going to LA, where Brian's doing a new record. He wants me to be on it, and I do want to do that. So we're sort of waiting on when that's going to happen, and then we'll go from there. And Todd is so busy. His summer is always busy, and that's coming up. You know. (Laughs). They work a lot.

Sterling: How do you make that work? I know a lot of touring musicians, and I know it is often really difficult for them to sustain any kind of solid home relationships. In your case, both of you are out touring separately.

Taylor: Well, Brian doesn't go out as much as Styx, obviously, so it's a little better, because it's not like we're both gone and nobody's here. I'm here a lot. But we've always done this. This is who we were when we met. It didn't just happen and surprise either one of us. I'm pretty logical about that. I knew that wasn't going to change, and I just live within it. That's what we do. That's who he is, and that's who I am, and I support that. It's not easy, but you have to be independent, as a woman home and her husband gone. You have to find things that you love on your own, and then when they come home, you go back into that. It's tricky, but you can make it work.

Sterling: In the current musical climate, how do you go about promoting an independent release that cuts a little bit against the mainstream? Are you going to put a single out to radio?

Taylor: (Laughs). I have no idea. The record industry is crazy right now. Who knows? No, we don't really have a single that's out right now. If you wanna put one out, go ahead. (Laughs).

Sterling: Even older, established artists with long-term fan support are struggling in the recorded marketplace right now. You were talking about doing a new record with Brian; the question at this point is, with downloading affecting everyone's bottom line the way it has, how do you deliver a new album and make it financially viable?

Taylor: Brian has sort of a built-in audience, I would say. Especially over in England and Europe. I don't know; I'm sure he'll get some publicity. You need a little bit of buzz about things. It is a tricky thing, but I also believe that good music will reach who it's supposed to reach, and hopefully it just kinda seeps out there  -  talking about mine  -  and it just gets to who should have it.

Todd: I'm not sure where it's all going to go, because it changes by the week. This business changes by the week now. I was having a conversation with my sax player friend, Steve Cole, and we were discussing that part of what made certain artists who they are, or made people take note, is that we need  some people to tell us that this is good, this is cool, and we need quality people to do that, like Ahmet     Ertegun. Like, “Here, I've signed Led Zeppelin, check these guys out.” Then you had a band that you could build a catalog. Right now the labels are so desperate, if you don't step up to the plate and hit a grand slam your first at bat, you're dead. Your career is over.

Sterling: There really is no artist development anymore.

Todd: Absolutely. I think Billy Joel had four or five records before he had his first hit. Who could possibly release four or five albums on a major label  right now without hitting grand slams? You just would not have a career. So there needs to be . . . and I don't know if the labels are ever gonna come back. That was kinda the hope, is that there'd be some sort of form where the hipsters are actually guiding the public on what is hip, because the masses need to be told what is good. With everything so widespread right now, there's just a lot of jive stuff out there, because everyone can make a record on their laptop and put it up on MySpace and the web. There's just a million things out there. Everyone's doing it. Well, guess what, it pretty freakin' hard to make a good record.

You want it to sound good? Recording studios still work, for a lot of reasons. A bedroom record sounds like your bedroom. So I think things are running amok right now, and hopefully good sense and art will win out in the end.

Sterling: Is that why you formed your own label for this project?

Taylor: I'm a big fan of the independent label sort of thing, because you get to control your destiny a little bit more, and you don't have people telling you, “No, no, no, this is what you should do,” when it's not who you are.

Sterling: Do you think that -  especially with you being female and having the visual appeal that you do -  another label might have pushed you away from what you did on this record and toward more of a  mainstream approach?

Taylor: Possibly, yes, They probably would have maybe not liked some of the songs because they weren't the pop thing that they wanted. Who knows what they would hear or want? They don't even know. They're a bunch of businessmen. I don't even know why people listen to those people. I don't. They don't really know, they're very outdated as far as what real music lovers want.

Sterling: Todd, you're also credited as an executive producer on this project. Does that mean you had responsibility for setting up the business side of the release?

Todd: Yes. That was really sort of a trial by fire, because I've never done anything like that before. Again, I'm a side musician. Normally I come in, I play my parts, I say goodbye and good luck, and they send me a record when it's done in a year. So to actually see this thing through, and say, “Okay, what do I need to do to have my legal T's crossed and I's dotted to make this happen?' And you know, we've had a friend or two that we thought we might go with their small label, but their friendship  meant more to us than the possibility of anything disappointing happening and the friendship being lost over it. Ultimately we thought, 'Through this process we've had no one telling us what to do, we haven't had to tailor anything to anyone's artistic wants or wishes but our own; let's see this through this way, entirely on our own and see what happens.'

Sterling: Now that you have a business structure already in place, is it a scenario where you might sign any other artists and release their work as well?

Todd: Being as that this label was essentially created for this purpose, I have no interest in trying to be a record mogul; certainly not at this time in history. (Laughs). I may as well start an independent butter churners union.  I might even have more luck with that, because people actually still buy butter. (Laughs).

Sterling: Well, you can't download butter, right? (Laughs). What goals do you have for this record, and are you planning another one?

Taylor: I'm focusing on this at the moment. I'm still  in love with this record, so I'm not ready to move on yet. And I'll know when it's time. I'll just feel it, like, 'Okay, it's time to do something else'. It's not quite time yet. I still really, really love this record.

Todd: Honestly, the goal has been achieved. We wanted every song and every moment of every song to be strong. We wanted the record to have a certain look, a certain feel and a certain mood. And it's really up to the consumer or the music lover to make their own decisions about it, and if that can play a part in their  personal soundtrack of their life. To work a record, especially when we're both involved with Brian and with Styx . . . you just need a dump truck of money to work radio for an independent release. It's really an uphill battle.

 So really, to get a note or a letter from someone who has really appreciated the music, or they've been personally touched by a particular song, that's gratitude right there. Sure, a lot of sales would be wonderful, but that's really not why we did this. That's why I feel this record really comes from an honest place, and people get it or they don't.

Sterling: What would you say to someone who hasn't heard this record, to sum it up?

Todd: There's no typical singer-girl crap, there's no kitsch or camp, there's nothing that dates it. I firmly believe that lyrically or  sonically, you could listen to this record in ten years, and it's not gonna sound like, “Oh, that was so 2007.” There's nothing that cheapens it or dates it. To me it's just pure emotion and feeling, from the instruments to the voice to the lyrical content. And if people resonate with that, great. If people don't, well, they won't, and they're gonna look for whatever is the campy, trendy thing that they're not gonna give a damn about a year or two down the road.

 Some of my favorite records are ones that the first time you listen to it, you're like, “I'm intrigued.” And then by the third or fourth time you listen to it, you're like, “I am in love with this.” It's like an Impressionistic painting. I like a record that makes you work, and it makes you think, and it reveals things over repeated listens, rather than, “Oh, here's the pop song. Catchy.” And then by the third time you hear it, you're like, “Yeah, I've  got it.”  And that's a hard sell for a lot of people, is actual quality music that you have to sit down and pay attention to.

Taylor: It's definitely a record that I always have people listen to it more than once, and it sort of seeps in and it really shows colors that you didn't hear the first time you put it on. Which, I think that's the best kind of record, don't you?

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