Make Music With Steven P. West

Greetings, iBrattleboroans!

It’s me, Steve West, the former host of WKVT’s “Live and Local”. I’ve been laying low since leaving talk radio, and have been busy plotting my first solo record. I’ve been writing songs for decades now, but have never made a recording of just my songs. Some may remember Relative Strangers, a group I did here in southern Vermont with Clayton Sabine and Rose Gerber. I also played in a band in the 80s that some may remember called Miracle Legion (Rough Trade Records) out of New Haven, CT.

So now, with my son all grown and off into his life, it’s time for me to do something with this growing pile of songs I’ve made over the years. I sometimes call my kind of songwriting “existential pop”. I write about the peculiar spectacle of being a human on a water planet. Sometimes they’re funny….sometimes definitely not funny. But all in all, I make songs that I think are catchy, a little smartassy, and as honest as I can be.

So I’ve taken to crowd-sourcing this project via PledgeMusic.com. They’ve helped me put together a whole presentation, the focal point of which is a nice video that local filmmaker Tim Wessel made for me. I hope you’ll check it out and listen to the demos. If you feel moved to help, I thank you profusely in advance. If you’re broke or prefer to donate money to urgent causes like Morningside Shelter, the Drop-In Center, etc., you have my undying respect. But somehow I’m thinking I can raise enough money to make a great record. My goal is to get one or more songs placed into movies or television shows.

And the icing on the cake: I really want this to be a record of, by and filled with Vermonters. I believe that the best recorded music we ever hear has so much human goodness in it that it somehow just “shines” in our ears. I’ll be recording in the Brattleboro area, and will have opportunities for many people to come add their “thing” to some tunes. I’ve enlisted the help of some talented musicans, and I’ve got a brilliant producer, Billy Straus, all of whom are waiting for the “go” sign.

You can listen to some demos here: https://soundcloud.com/stevenpwest

And the link to the whole project and the video (among other things) is here: http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/stevenpwest

I thank you all in advance for even considering it.

Steve West

Brattleboro