RVNG Intl will release Becoming Peter Ivers, on November 8th. The full-length tells the story of the late Peter Ivers, a virtuosic songwriter and musician whose antics bridged not just 60s counterculture and New Wave music but also film, theater, and music television. Ahead of the album’s release, RVNG Intl. has shared “In Heaven,” a song co-written with David Lynch and commissioned by the filmmaker to be featured in a now-iconic scene of Eraserhead. Additionally, they share an album teaser.

Ivers recorded hundreds of writing and rehearsal sessions onto reel-to-reel and cassette tapes, but notes were either scarcely kept or have since been lost. RVNG Intl. collaborated with Ivers’ friend and supporter Steven Martin under guidance from his longtime girlfriend Lucy Fisher to tell an intimate story of Peter’s creative journey through this untold music. Becoming Peter Ivers was assembled from a trove of demo cassettes and reel-to-reel tapes that Ivers recorded variously at his home in Laurel Canyon, Los Angeles, and Hollywood studios for a pair of major label albums in 1974 and 1976. While the two commercially released albums feature the resources of session musicians and state-of-the-art studio detail, Becoming Peter Ivers highlights the private moments of Ivers’ musical energy, frequently pared down to piano, drum machine, harmonica, and Peter’s ageless voice.

In addition to being a studious artist, Ivers was also the host and paternal misfit of Los Angeles-area public access show New Wave Theatre in 1980. Accentuated by his cherubic face and compact height, Ivers’ vitality and curiosity became a part of his poetic sensibility, a quality that also characterizes his singing voice and his television personality. Ivers would introduce a new generation of groups like Fear, Dead Kennedys, and Suburban Lawns while playing a kind-of “straight” man, deliberately baiting the punks with square questions and frocked fashion. His signature question to guests was delivered deadpan: “What is the meaning of life?”

Ivers died, tragically, the victim of a violent homicide in 1983 that remains unsolved. A shock to his community, his death all but fazed the LAPD, who treated the investigation with less than minimum care.

A labor of love that took RVNG Intl. over five years to complete, Becoming Peter Ivers re-frames Peter’s music as the centerpiece of his captivating story, concentrating on the work he made during his numerous retreats into art, or, as he put it, during his snowy days. Available as a double LP, CD, and digitally, Becoming Peter Ivers includes liner notes by Sam Lefebvre and Steven Martin and an array of unseen ephemera from Peter’s life and times.

Peter Ivers
Becoming Peter Ivers
Tracklist

1. Take Your Chances With Me
2. Eighteen and Dreaming
3. Love Is A Jungle
4. Conference Call at Four
5. Peter
6. Even Stephen Foster
7. I’m Sorry Alice
8. Deborah
9. Miraculous Weekend
10. Holding The Cobra
11. Audience of One
12. Alpha Centauri
13. I’ve Seen Your Face
14. My Grandmother’s Funeral
15. In Heaven
16. My Desire
17. The Night You Didn’t Come
18. Untitled
19. Love In Flight (Piano Overture)
20. Ain’t That A Kick
21. Jamaica Moon
22. Happy On The Grill
23. Window Washer (w/ Van Dyke Parks)
24. You Used To Be Stevie Wonder
25. Nirvana Cuba Waltz