I was really looking forward to sitting down to talk to him on a chilly December afternoon at El Myr in the Little 5 Points area of Atlanta, Georgia. His solo debut album “Love, Politics and Moral Fatigue” is set to be released in early 2008.
J: Where did you record the new record?
Curtis: It was actually recorded in a one bedroom apartment in Little 5 points. I’d say 95% of everything you hear was recorded on just a little sixteen track machine.
I have an organ over at my mother’s house. I had the organ and some drums so it was obviously too loud for an apartment. So, I’d go over there, bang on the drums, play the organ and scare her half to death! There may have been a minimum of vocal overdubs done in a friend of mine’s apartment in Nashville.
J: You are a very eclectic musician, how would you describe the sound of the album?
Curtis: This album is where it all started with me. Quartet Gospel, definitely blues, country, raw soul (laughs) [as opposed to] pretty soul.
J: That’s supposed to be what real soul is in my opinion.
Curtis: Well yeah, it is just raw. A lot of mistakes I fixed. They didn’t feel right so I just went with the unfixed version and just left it.
J: Did you mix the new recording as well?
Curtis: Melissa Mattey mixed it for me. She’s actually a very good engineer. She works with a lot of the popular country artists; Faith Hill, Tim McGraw, Keith Urban. She works with those guys but she gave me the friend rate! She did the edits for me and together we came up with some conglomeration of a mix. She was very instrumental in cleaning up a lot. Trust me the tracks were pretty dirty. You could hear sirens going by and dogs barking on these tracks! We cleaned them as best we could. I’m not sure we got them all out. I know for certain there is someone driving down the street playing Marilyn Manson on the beginning of a song and we just put distortion on it and left it in there! And there is a leaf blower on one of the tunes!
J: What instruments do you play? Any guest musicians or artists to mention?
Curtis: I played all the bass. That’s the one instrument that I feel comfortable telling people I’m a professional at! I played all the bass. I played 90% of the guitars. I shared keyboard duties with Elizabeth Nation and another friend of mine, Mark. You’ll hear me on organ. The drums were played by either me or another friend of mine, Tracy Williams. He’s an excellent drummer. So if it sounded pretty complicated, he did it. If it sounded pretty basic, it was probably me!
Most of them I did, I do dabble on all of them. If I feel like I’m cheating the song I just rule the ego out of it and get someone who’s obviously better. I think that’s the best way to do that.
J: What is the record called?
Curtis: “Love, Politics and Moral Fatigue”.
J: Do you plan on touring much to promote this record?
Curtis: Absolutely, there are irons in the fire right now, just waiting on everything to kind of get lined up. This is a new thing for me after doing everything on my own as opposed to going through some label and you call somebody to just show up and play. It’s a different sort of way. You know you think you have to call the art department to get their approval then you realize you are the art department! “Who’s doing the booking? What's wrong with the booking agency?” Well the booking agency is yourself! You get to wear more than one hat. It’s a work in progress but the pieces are going to come together. I’m definitely planning on promoting it as much as possible.
