{"title":"Hen House Studios Music Store","description":"","products":[{"product_id":"simple-syrup-cd","title":"Sunny War - Simple Syrup CD","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"UTF-8\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eSunny War - Simple Syrup has a vibrant, loose feel, more focused on the interplay with the musicians than before. Sunny’s new songs touch on everything from romance to politics, jumping easily between larger concepts like the expectations for famous Black women in American art (“Like Nina”) and smaller ideas like “Kiss A Loser”, her ode to her own drunken self in relationships. One of the more powerful songs on the album, “Deployed and Destroyed” is about a friend that Sunny knew from the streets. A veteran of the Iraq Wars, she watched him fall apart from PTSD, another vet who was unable to get the care he needed and is now homeless and suffering from severe mental trauma. Watching so many friends fall apart under the pressures of COVID–losing jobs, being left\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"bcTruncateMore\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003ebehind–motivated Sunny to do more, to make change.\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"peekaboo-text\" id=\"package_description_0\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eSurrounded by relentless pressures from societal change, Sunny worked more closely with her community and embarked on a nearly year-long recording spree that brought two EPs (one of which, Can I Sit With You?, made a number of Best of 2020 lists) and now Simple Syrup coming in March 2021. The pandemic has been a crucible for Sunny, burning away the parts of the old world that didn’t truly matter and leaving her with a new purpose.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"bcTruncateMore\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"peekaboo-text\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\n\u003cspan\u003eRecord label: \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ca title=\"Hen House Studios\" href=\"http:\/\/www.henhousestudios.com\" data-mce-href=\"http:\/\/www.henhousestudios.com\"\u003eHen House Studios\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, produced by Harlan Steinberger\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Hen House Studios","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44452116758837,"sku":"","price":20.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0724\/1996\/7285\/products\/a0949981843_16.jpg?v=1676438441"},{"product_id":"sunny-war-shell-of-a-girl-cd","title":"Sunny War - Shell of a Girl   CD","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"UTF-8\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eReleased on the heels of her critically acclaimed 2018 album, With the Sun, Sunny War’s new album finds her a little bit older, a little bit more mature, but looking back on the rocky roads of her past with a surprising amount of nostalgia. Shell of a Girl, coming June 14, 2019 on Hen House Studios with vinyl released by Org Music, was written in a burst of creativity in Los Angeles, and marks a new transition period, with Sunny moving from the Venice Beach boardwalk, where she first made her name, to the streets of downtown Los Angeles. Holed up in a studio apartment in an old halfway house that’s rumored to be haunted, Sunny muses “I think I’ve heard ghosts, but I’ve always heard ghosts everywhere.” These ghosts are reflected in the songs on the new album, either through\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"bcTruncateMore\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e the ghosts of friends who’ve passed away, \u003cspan class=\"peekaboo-text\" id=\"package_description_0\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003efrom overdose or accident, or in the ghosts of who she used to be. “I feel like I’ve tricked myself into trying to be a part of the system that I swore I’d never participate in,” she says. “Now I’m worried about moving from a studio to a one-bedroom. It bums me out when the thing I’m happy about is paying the light bill. I’m never happy about something that’s real anymore.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"bcTruncateMore\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"peekaboo-text\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\n\u003cspan\u003eRecord label: \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ca title=\"Hen House Studios\" href=\"http:\/\/www.henhousestudios.com\" data-mce-href=\"http:\/\/www.henhousestudios.com\"\u003eHen House Studios\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, produced by Harlan Steinberger\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Hen House Studios","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44452485923125,"sku":"","price":25.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0724\/1996\/7285\/products\/a0869076564_16.jpg?v=1676440678"},{"product_id":"sunny-war-with-the-sun-cd","title":"Sunny War - With The Sun CD","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"UTF-8\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e It’s no secret that great art comes from the margins. From those who are either pushed to create from inner forces, or who create to show they deserve to be recognized. Los Angeles-based street singer, guitarist, and roots music revolutionary Sunny War has always been an outsider, always felt the drive to define her place in the world through music and songwriting. As a young black girl growing up in Nashville, she searched for her own roots, looking first to the blues she heard from her mother’s boyfriend, and learning from a local guitarist. Moving to Los Angeles in her teens, she searched for herself in the LA punk scene, playing house shows with FIDLAR, and shoplifting DVDs from big box stores to trade at Amoeba Records for 80s punk albums\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"bcTruncateMore\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e. But here too she found herself on the \u003cspan class=\"peekaboo-text\" id=\"package_description_1\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eoutside, working to bridge her foundation in country blues and American roots guitar traditions with the punk scene she called home. She first made her name with this work, bringing a wickedly virtuosic touch on the fingerstyle guitar that sprang from her own self-discoveries on the instrument. But her restless spirit, a byproduct of growing up semi-nomadic with a single mother, led her to Venice Beach, California, where she’s been grinding the pavement for some years now, making a name for her prodigious guitar work and incisive songwriting, which touches on everything from police violence to alcoholism to love found and lost. Her new album, With the Sun, out February 2, 2018 on Hen House Studios, is the culmination of years of burning curiosity as an artist, the result of many wandered paths to find some new way to speak her heart. For the first time, she’s writing songs first and crafting the guitar work second, focusing on her own poetry and trying to tell her own story. She’s an outsider artist in the truest sense, living on the margins of the establishment and fueled only by her own creative genius.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"bcTruncateMore\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"peekaboo-text\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\n\u003cspan\u003eRecord label: \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ca title=\"Hen House Studios\" href=\"http:\/\/www.henhousestudios.com\" data-mce-href=\"http:\/\/www.henhousestudios.com\"\u003eHen House Studios\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, produced by Harlan Steinberger\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Hen House Studios","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44452521345333,"sku":"","price":20.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0724\/1996\/7285\/products\/a2498792661_2.jpg?v=1676440850"},{"product_id":"sunny-war-particle-kid-particle-war-cd","title":"Sunny War, Particle Kid - Particle War CD","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"UTF-8\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eThe Particle War album is a split LP that is the creation of Particle Kid (Micah Nelson) and Sunny War. Each artist recorded five original songs and one cover. Sunny and Micah are two artists that have the focus, talent and innovation to keep an audience captivated with every album they release ... and there is always one in the making.. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eTo make the LP less of two individual artists side by side and more a collaborative project, Micah and Sunny play or sing on every song, be it bass, drums or backing vocals, many of the songs consisting of just Sunny and Micah playing all the instruments. However, there are some special guests, including John Densmore of The Doors, Jeff Smith of Insects vs Robots, Bob Rice (who also mastered the album), and engineer\/producer Harlan Steinberger himself.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003eRecord label: \u003ca title=\"Hen House Studios\" href=\"http:\/\/www.henhousestudios.com\" data-mce-href=\"http:\/\/www.henhousestudios.com\"\u003eHen House Studios\u003c\/a\u003e, produced by Harlan Steinberger\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Hen House Studios","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44452856660277,"sku":"","price":25.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0724\/1996\/7285\/products\/a0155022333_16.jpg?v=1676444435"},{"product_id":"b-wurtz-some-songs-cd","title":"B. Wurtz - Some Songs CD","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"UTF-8\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e“B. Wurtz’s music is honest… He lives in a dimension that exists in the upside-down reflections in a spoon on the tablecloth sitting on the breakfast table at Lou Reed’s house, if Lou Reed lived in Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood and Brian Eno was the mailman.” – Micah Nelson (Particle Kid) \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e“These songs move through so many contours of ideas and states of being… from playfulness to gently nuanced warnings. Full of love and loss and things intricately observed. B. and his collaborators ensure fascinating twists that make the journey from the first note to the final poetic, one ever worth taking (again and again).” – Kristy Edmunds, Executive \u0026amp; Artistic Director Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eRevered visual artist B. Wurtz releases his debut album, Some Songs, on October 16 via Hen House Studios. B. Wurtz began studying piano as a child and taught himself guitar as a teen. He also drew and painted. Late in high school his piano teacher urged him to consider a musical career but instead he felt compelled to focus intently on his art practice and has remained an artist to this day. His interest in listening to music has never flagged but performing was not part of his life again until a few years ago. In 2016, his\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"bcTruncateMore\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e wife Ann gifted him a guitar for their anniversary. While relearning initially proved difficult to uncalloused fingers, a mind sharpened by conceptual art work quickly formed its own refined songwriting approach. YouTube tutorials helped him produce demos on Garageband. He later added lyrics that blended philosophical thought with direct observation; birds and clouds passing outside his windows, signage on New York subways, a clock on his shelf. What resulted is Some Songs, an album produced by Harlan Steinberger at Hen House Studios in Venice. \u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eB. elaborates: “In 2018 I had a survey exhibition of my art at ICA Los Angeles. At the opening party I met Harlan Steinberger, who told me he was a music producer. Later he sent me an album he had just done with Sunny War. I loved it… That led to an amazing collaboration with Harlan and several other truly great musicians, including Sunny and Micah Nelson (aka Particle Kid). Thus the album came into being… I thought of the songs I had written as basically being pop music, but resulting from the mixture of things that influenced me -- classical music (i.e. Bach and Mozart), ‘60s pop\/rock (i.e. The Rolling Stones), country music (i.e. the Carter Family) and traditional American folk music (meaning mountain and southern music as well as shaped note, sacred harp music). I had no overriding theme in mind for the album. The music and lyrics just seemed to enter me, coming from somewhere else. I find that fascinating. I followed the same pattern for writing all the songs, first the chord structure, then the melody, and finally the lyrics. It’s very fun, like putting a puzzle together.” \u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eEach track on Some Songs is accompanied with a music video by acclaimed photographer and filmmaker, Randi Malkin Steinberger. In her words: “Matching the sophisticated simplicity of B. Wurtz’s music was the beauty and challenge of making a visual companion to Some Songs. Images gathered from my own films and found footage, as well as from short videos shot by B. on his iPod Touch under my direction, are manipulated and strung together in a layered collage of visual sentiments - mostly done while under quarantine. My studio is in the same building as The Hen House where B. and the band recorded. My husband Harlan produced the project and so I had the luxury of witnessing the album as it evolved. Images swam through my head throughout the process, leading to discussions about me creating videos. I went on to actualize 14 videos that ultimately became the video accompaniment for B.’s magical songs… What an honor it was for me to take on that challenge of making a visual companion to his music.” \u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eAbout B. Wurtz \u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eB. Wurtz was born in 1948 in Pasadena, California and lives and works in New York. He received an MFA from the California Institute of the Arts in 1980. For over forty years, Wurtz has transformed the minutiae of daily life into poetic sculptures, drawings, and assemblages. Items such as food tins, clothing, plastic bags, mesh produce bags, and yogurt containers are transformed into elegant meditations on form and line while simultaneously underscoring the artist’s commitment to the ethics of reuse. In 2015, he was the subject of a retrospective exhibition at BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art (Gateshead, UK) which traveled to La Casa Encendida (Madrid). He has exhibited all over the world, including MoMA PS1 (New York), Moderna Museet (Stockholm), Museum of Contemporary Art (Chicago), among others.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"bcTruncateMore\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\n\u003cspan\u003eRecord label: \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003ca title=\"Hen House Studios\" href=\"http:\/\/www.henhousestudios.com\" data-mce-href=\"http:\/\/www.henhousestudios.com\"\u003eHen House Studios\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, produced by Harlan Steinberger\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Hen House Studios","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44452895129909,"sku":"","price":20.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0724\/1996\/7285\/products\/a1682371939_16.jpg?v=1676444911"},{"product_id":"ellyn-maybe-rodeo-for-the-sheepish-cd","title":"Ellyn Maybe - Rodeo for the Sheepish CD","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"UTF-8\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eRodeo for the Sheepish – Ellyn Maybe is an irresistible force. To read or listen to her poetry is to be gently and completely crushed while simultaneously inspired and charmed. The honesty with which she so exquisitely reveals her vulnerabilities, desires and pain is beautiful and rare. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eRodeo for the Sheepish has so many great moments. The first time I listened to it, I was reminded of when I first met her many years ago and how much I liked her and her poetry. One of the stand out tracks on the album, There Were Two Girls Who Looked A Lot The Same, is a perfect example of why one becomes a fan of Ellyn’s immediately. I can’t understand how anyone could not find an aspect of themselves in that piece. This is what Ellyn does so well and so often in her work and on this album. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eReading Ellyn’s poems from the page is one thing but hearing her read them just the way she meant them to be heard is something else altogether. Ellyn has a great sense of humor and reads wonderfully. The musical accompaniment on the album is not mere background filler but a true collaborative effort between Ellyn and the musicians that really works. Ellyn is a very gifted writer and a true gem. – Henry\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"bcTruncateMore\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eRollins \u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e“I have started to write something about you for your site several times, and each time I am struck by my inability to describe what you do in terms beautiful enough, original enough to do you justice. But it’s always been this way. Who has ever been able to say in other words what a song says? Maybe it’s why I like your poems so much, they say what can only be said in exactly the way you say it. The best way of turning someone on to you is to play you for them. – \u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eJackson Browne\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003eRecord label: \u003ca title=\"Hen House Studios\" href=\"http:\/\/www.henhousestudios.com\" data-mce-href=\"http:\/\/www.henhousestudios.com\"\u003eHen House Studios\u003c\/a\u003e, produced by Harlan Steinberger\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Hen House Studios","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44452995662133,"sku":"","price":25.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0724\/1996\/7285\/products\/a0907551117_16.jpg?v=1676445821"},{"product_id":"steven-rushingwind-red-beaten-path-cd","title":"Steven Rushingwind - Red Beaten Path CD","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"UTF-8\"\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cspan data-bind=\"visible: !editingText(), html: bioPartOne\" class=\"bio-text\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eA collaboration between Native American Music Award winner flutist Steven Rushingwind and musician producer Harlan\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan data-bind=\"visible: !editingText() \u0026amp;\u0026amp; moreText(), html: bioPartTwo\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eSteinberger The music, both modern and spiritual, takes one through a gamut of emotions as the listener is projected back to the time of Rushingwind’s ancestors and forward again to the present by the sound of soulful wailing flutes and the accompanying ensemble tracks.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan data-bind=\"visible: !editingText() \u0026amp;\u0026amp; moreText(), html: bioPartTwo\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003eRecord label: \u003ca title=\"Hen House Studios\" href=\"http:\/\/www.henhousestudios.com\" data-mce-href=\"http:\/\/www.henhousestudios.com\"\u003eHen House Studios\u003c\/a\u003e, produced by Harlan Steinberger\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Hen House Studios","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44453014208821,"sku":"","price":20.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0724\/1996\/7285\/products\/a1005973832_16.jpg?v=1676446083"},{"product_id":"sonny-zorro-the-king-of-venice-cd","title":"Sonny Zorro - The King of Venice CD","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eSunny mostly slept outside and sometimes in an inoperable car, never far from his large cart filled with everyday necessities and personal treasures. Everyone knew Sunny and eventually embraced him as the King of Venice Beach in Los Angeles.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003eRecord label: \u003ca title=\"Hen House Studios\" href=\"http:\/\/www.henhousestudios.com\" data-mce-href=\"http:\/\/www.henhousestudios.com\"\u003eHen House Studios\u003c\/a\u003e, produced by Harlan Steinberger\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Hen House Studios","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44453057200437,"sku":"","price":20.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0724\/1996\/7285\/products\/Sunny.KingofVenice.HenHouseStudios.CoverHiRez.jpg?v=1676850028"},{"product_id":"b-wurtz-some-songs-vinyl-lp","title":"B. Wurtz - Some Songs Vinyl LP","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe standard edition double vinyl album which includes a B. Wurtz original photo print on the forth side. Check out the album art work by watching the unboxing video here: https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=jCVFB9d9lAY\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e“B. Wurtz’s music is honest… He lives in a dimension that exists in the upside-down reflections in a spoon on the tablecloth sitting on the breakfast table at Lou Reed’s house, if Lou Reed lived in Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood and Brian Eno was the mailman.” – \u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMicah Nelson (Particle Kid)\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e“These songs move through so many contours of ideas and states of being… from playfulness to gently nuanced warnings. Full of love and loss and things intricately observed. B. and his collaborators ensure fascinating twists that make the journey from the first note to the final poetic, one ever worth taking (again and again).” – Kristy Edmunds, Executive \u0026amp; Artistic Director Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eRevered visual artist B. Wurtz releases his debut album, Some Songs, on October 16 via Hen House Studios. B. Wurtz began studying piano as a child and taught himself guitar as a teen. He also drew and painted. Late in high school his piano teacher urged him to consider a musical career but instead he felt compelled to focus intently on his art practice and has remained an artist to this day. His interest in listening to music has never flagged but performing was not part of his life again until a few years ago. In 2016, his\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"bcTruncateMore\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003ewife Ann gifted him a guitar for their anniversary. While relearning initially proved difficult to uncalloused fingers, a mind sharpened by conceptual art work quickly formed its own refined songwriting approach. YouTube tutorials helped him produce demos on Garageband. He later added lyrics that blended philosophical thought with direct observation; birds and clouds passing outside his windows, signage on New York subways, a clock on his shelf. What resulted is Some Songs, an album produced by Harlan Steinberger at Hen House Studios in Venice.\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eB. elaborates: “In 2018 I had a survey exhibition of my art at ICA Los Angeles. At the opening party I met Harlan Steinberger, who told me he was a music producer. Later he sent me an album he had just done with Sunny War. I loved it… That led to an amazing collaboration with Harlan and several other truly great musicians, including Sunny and Micah Nelson (aka Particle Kid). Thus the album came into being… I thought of the songs I had written as basically being pop music, but resulting from the mixture of things that influenced me -- classical music (i.e. Bach and Mozart), ‘60s pop\/rock (i.e. The Rolling Stones), country music (i.e. the Carter Family) and traditional American folk music (meaning mountain and southern music as well as shaped note, sacred harp music). I had no overriding theme in mind for the album. The music and lyrics just seemed to enter me, coming from somewhere else. I find that fascinating. I followed the same pattern for writing all the songs, first the chord structure, then the melody, and finally the lyrics. It’s very fun, like putting a puzzle together.”\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eEach track on Some Songs is accompanied with a music video by acclaimed photographer and filmmaker, Randi Malkin Steinberger. In her words: “Matching the sophisticated simplicity of B. Wurtz’s music was the beauty and challenge of making a visual companion to Some Songs. Images gathered from my own films and found footage, as well as from short videos shot by B. on his iPod Touch under my direction, are manipulated and strung together in a layered collage of visual sentiments - mostly done while under quarantine. My studio is in the same building as The Hen House where B. and the band recorded. My husband Harlan produced the project and so I had the luxury of witnessing the album as it evolved. Images swam through my head throughout the process, leading to discussions about me creating videos. I went on to actualize 14 videos that ultimately became the video accompaniment for B.’s magical songs… What an honor it was for me to take on that challenge of making a visual companion to his music.”\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eAbout B. Wurtz\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eB. Wurtz was born in 1948 in Pasadena, California and lives and works in New York. He received an MFA from the California Institute of the Arts in 1980. For over forty years, Wurtz has transformed the minutiae of daily life into poetic sculptures, drawings, and assemblages. Items such as food tins, clothing, plastic bags, mesh produce bags, and yogurt containers are transformed into elegant meditations on form and line while simultaneously underscoring the artist’s commitment to the ethics of reuse. In 2015, he was the subject of a retrospective exhibition at BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art (Gateshead, UK) which traveled to La Casa Encendida (Madrid). He has exhibited all over the world, including MoMA PS1 (New York), Moderna Museet (Stockholm), Museum of Contemporary Art (Chicago), among others.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"bcTruncateMore\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\n\u003cspan\u003eRecord label: \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003ca href=\"http:\/\/www.henhousestudios.com\" title=\"Hen House Studios\" data-mce-href=\"http:\/\/www.henhousestudios.com\"\u003eHen House Studios\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, produced by Harlan Steinberger\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Hen House Studios","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44475989983541,"sku":"","price":35.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0724\/1996\/7285\/products\/Some-Songs-Cover_Record.jpg?v=1676767910"}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0724\/1996\/7285\/collections\/hen_house_studios_logo_3.jpg?v=1676769641","url":"https:\/\/hen-house-studios-2.myshopify.com\/en-mw\/collections\/frontpage.oembed","provider":"Hen House Studios","version":"1.0","type":"link"}