Fans of early 1980s eclectic American progressive rock band Art in America must have the proverbial patience of Job – as do the members of the band themselves. After an evocative, genre-bending and critically acclaimed debut album in 1983, the quartet basically dropped off the face of the Earth, at least in terms of their profile within the music industry.
Nary a peep was heard until a couple of years ago, when quiet rumblings of the possibility of a reunion and new music began to increase in frequency and volume, until earlier this year, not long after the dawning of the new decade, Art in America released their second album – the masterfully composed and produced Cloudborn on their own independent label, signalling to the music world, and especially to their long suffering fan base, that they were back.
Oh, but what a twisted and tangled tale It has been to get to this point, a story that is as much the epitome of the frustrating inertia of the monolithic music industry, as it is a hallmark of hope and perseverance.
Starting in Detroit, after spending their formative years in a suburb of Cleveland, what would become Art in America began in 1980, and after changing their name once Jim Kuha joined the Flynn siblings, Dan (drums), Shishonee (classical harp/vocals) and guitarist/lead vocalist Chris, the artful progressive rock stylings of the group soon had them opening for the likes of a very new U2, King Crimson and Roxy Music, and also garnered them a record deal with what is now Sony Music. Having a major label deal in the hot and heady 1980s also meant access to top line producers, with Art in America recording their self-titled debut album under the auspices of industry veteran Eddy Offord, best known for his work with Yes and Emerson, Lake and Palmer – true heavyweights of the prog world.
“It was a lot of fun working with Eddy. We recorded that album in Atlanta, Georgia, and our managers set us up in a house there. We recorded on his stage – it was actually an old movie house, but they also had plays there for many years, so there was an actual stage. We would record one run through so we could capture the drums and back then you re-recorded all the other instruments separately so they could be basically isolated and worked with in the mix. Eddy was great, and he used to run the harp though Marshalls and Ampeg amps with the reverb and got a great tone,” Chris said.
As for the band’s sound, having a harp in the band was not a gimmick, but a legitimate creative step to separate Art in America’s music and aesthetic from the rest of the music world. It added a unique dimension to the band’s sound, and an ethereal, old-world vibe to their stage shows.
“Our grandmother was a classical pianist, and our father was a musician as well. So, those elements are there in our music. But the British Invasion from the 1960s was very pivotal in my influences at least as a writer. And then again, there’s a lot of British folklore in our music, because our grandmother was British. So, there was the Beatles and The Moody Blues were a big band for me, as well as The Beach Boys and Spirit – we loved them. There are a lot of American influences. We grew up in Cleveland and Cleveland radio stations were bouncing back and forth between Motown and the British Invasion when we were kids, so we heard both,” Chris said, talking about the band’s influences and the foundation for much of his writing as the primary composer in the group.
“I write songs in a much shorter format than most prog artists do. I feel that once I have said what I need to say in a song, I don’t want to overstay my welcome. Basically, I will write any kind of song in any kind of format; I am just going to take the song where it basically wants to be taken and where it leads me. I’m following it in my own head and just experimenting and using trial and error and that kind of thing. At the end of the day, I would explain Art in America’s music as American Progressive Rock, although that’s pretty unoriginal.”
Shishonee Flynn of Art in America circa early 1980s.
What sparked the process that ended with the release of this compelling, and in part, kind of a career retrospective for Art in America, was a fortuitous call from the agent representing well-respected, industry veteran David Hentschel, a producer of significant note, whose prodigious output includes working with the likes of Genesis, Elton John, Queen and the Beatles’ George Harrison. Chris Flynn explained that the band may have seemed dormant on the outside, but that the creative juices never stopped flowing behind the scenes.
“The band has continued to write for the last 30 or so years. The original [self titled] album was released in 1983, but we continued to write and continued to try to obtain a record deal for many, many years. Finally, we just decided we will keep writing anyways. So, we did, and we have a backlog of quite a bit of material – there are a good 75 songs in the can. Some of them are in varying degrees of completion, but most of them are pretty darn complete, they just needed a really good, modern production values,” he explained. From: https://www.musiclifemagazine.net/after-nearly-four-decades-art-in-america-release-second-album-cloudborn/
