Music Go Music is Gala Bell, Torg, and Kamer Maza, all long-time residents of Northeast Los Angeles. Our second full-length record, Impressions, is coming out on August 19th. As you might expect, it’s a little like the last record, and a little different. I won’t condescend to tell you what the songs sound like; the most useful way to look at the album may be as a roman a clef — dramatic filigree laid lightly over the sill plates of emotional, if not narrative, honesty. Or is it the opposite? A monolith tenuously perched atop a delicate lattice? I have no idea. Our first album Expressions came out several years ago, and we’ve been extremely busy since then. A few highlights:

1. We’re in the midst of developing a historical sci-fi musical called ‘Active Savage: Rise of Menergy.’ It’s the story of a West Hollywood Halloween parade that inadvertently travels back in time to Ancient Egypt and overthrows Ramses II.

This project is still in the fundraising stages, although the music and libretto are, for the most part, finished. If you want to get on board as an angel sponsor of this project, please contact us!

2. We wrote, recorded and produced the theme song and incidental music for the German situation comedy ‘So Schmeckt Das Leben.’ It was scheduled to debut on ‘Kabel Eins’ in 2012, but negative critical responses to the advance screeners led to an early cancellation, which is, apparently, not uncommon for German TV. (A ‘Der Spiegel’ reviewer noted “…[I was] professionally obligated to watch an entire episode of this program, and it was like being forced to eat garbage.” Most reviews that I saw were similarly dismissive.) We were disappointed that the show was not given the chance to connect with an audience, but stand by the music whole-heartedly!

Here’s the long edit of the show’s theme song

3. We also, sadly, spent a great deal of time working on a soundtrack for what turned out to be a non-existent Elliot Gould film. A man who identified himself as Mr. Gould’s son and representative contacted us through our then-record label, proposing that we score a film starring the actor. He told us that the senior Mr. Gould had written and directed it himself, and that it was in post-production. He sent us very grainy, low-quality footage of scenes from this film featuring a man we were led to believe was Elliot Gould, for which we were instructed to compose music. (Ostensibly, the extremely low resolution of the footage was a piracy deterrent.) We communicated with the younger Mr. Gould for several months via phone and email, sent him almost two hours of music, and he made several wire transfers (of amounts ranging from $75 to $400) into our checking account as an advance on points from the film. As our interaction with him continued, we became concerned by his increasingly erratic behavior, which culminated in a disquieting Snapchat session that would be our final interaction with him.

After months with no response to our messages, we were forced to conclude that the Gould project was a scam, and that were was never meant to be any film. It all seems very obvious in retrospect, but then I guess all scams do. We still don’t know what this man stood to gain by posing as Gould’s son.

A representative selection from the ‘Untitled Elliot Gould Project’ can be heard here

We mixed almost all of this music (per the fake Gould’s instructions) in Dolby 5.1, and that’s how it should ideally be listened to. Unfortunately, nobody will ever hear this in a theatre, so you’ll have to just listen on headphones and use your imagination!

We decided several years ago to tour very minimally in order to remain free to work on other types of projects as they arose. Thankfully, a surprising number of people have contacted us about working together, usually from outside the usual music business channels, and we’ve availed ourselves of as many of these opportunities as possible! At present, we are actively pursuing short-term engagements in the vacation industry (cruise ships, resorts, etc). If you or a loved one work in the vacation industry and have the means or desire to help set this up, PLEASE contact us directly.

We hope you enjoy the record…here’s to you! (Raises up giant snifter of ceviche)
– Kamer Maza (June, 2014)

FAQs:
Where did you record this?
– In my garage, and in Torg’s back bedroom
Did you use any MIDI stuff or sequencing on the record?
– No, we actually don’t know how to do those things, if you can believe it.
Do you play special events or parties?
– Yes, we love doing this. Please contact us if you have an event that could be spiced up with some live music. Warning: This can get really expensive!
Did the band members grow up in LA?
– Essentially, yes.
There seems to be a retro feel to some of these songs. Was this intentional? Do you like listening to older music?
– It wasn’t intentional, but we do like listening to older music.
Will Music Go Music remix my song?
– That depends. What kind of music is it?
It’s, like, jazz fusion, but really funky.
– Yeah, that sounds perfect for us. Send over the stems.
What’s a stem?
– The individual files that make up the song. One file for bass, another for piano, etc, etc.
Oh yeah, I just call them tracks.
– Same deal.
OK, I’ll send them over.
– Great.
Great. I can’t wait to hear it.

Music Go Music
Impressions
(Thousand Tongues)
Street Date: Aug. 19, 2014

Track List:

1 Love Is All I Can Hear
2 Inferno
3 People All Over the World
4 Tell Me How It Feels
5 Part of Me
6 Nite After Nite
7 Tuff Turf
8 Never Get Over You
9 Shine Down Forever