Soul Texture by Dick Lexus

I started this album December 2019 with a few goals in mind inspired by jam sessions with some friends in town (check out Wasted Patience https://www.facebook.com/WastedPatience ). We like to roll tape and just free jam, we've captured some magical moments and it made me remember what playing with other people is like. There is nuance and interplay that is formed when you are connecting with others. My previous solo work was very lacking in this regard.
So I wanted to challenge myself to break away from the short cuts and formulaic approach I had used in the past. I wanted this album to have a more raw and live feel to it, to sound more like a group of musicians playing together than individual parts looped over and over again. Another goal was to be able to perform every song while playing the guitar and singing, singer/songwriter style (something I had to learn to do). Beyond that I wanted to express more emotion or 'bare more of my soul' while striving for a continuity in the overall textural sound of the album as a whole.
Thus the title Soul Texture
The first steps were to try and define that texture. I did this by starting with the 2 cover songs so that I had something already written start with. I chose "Say Goodbye" from Beck's album "Morning Phase" because that album is a great example of the texture I was striving for. With "I'm Yours" I wanted to pick a very well known pop song that everyone could relate to and turn it into something different.
With the songs "Let's Try This Again" and "Paralyzed" I tried to get a little more personal than I normally do and dig deeper into emotional expression.
Then COVID hit and all that came with the lock-down. It sparked a flood of lyrical content in me. The songs: Look Away, Quarantine, We Are OK, Stand UP For What's Right and UNIFY or DIE were all written during this time. We Are OK was written and performed by my family as a home school music class project.