I am so excited to share the news with you that I dropped a single from the vault. The track, Nothing I Can Do, recorded in 1992, is now digitally available everywhere to stream and download, including on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, and You Tube.
Click here to get it on Bandcamp
THE BACKSTORY
Looking back, 1983 to 1994 was a multifaceted, busy time. I refer to this aspect of my career, in part, as the Solo Show Era. Among other things, I performed a one person show and made recordings mostly on my own from start to finish. Some of you may already be familiar with the Solo Show Era and attended the shows, while some younger fans may be hearing about it now for the first time. During that time, I also performed with the Life band, the Skafish band on a 1985 West Coast tour, and for the Barbie Goodrich cancer benefit in 1992. I also briefly formed two other bands, one in 1987 and the other in 1994.
Nothing I Can Do was a distinctive part of the Solo Show Era. I wrote, produced, arranged, engineered, and performed all the music for the song. Like many Skafish pieces, Nothing I Can Do is not only one-of-a-kind in the marketplace, but singularly unique in relation to other Skafish tracks.
Here are some features of this piece: The track is a combination of alternative rock, punk, hard rock and blues, whose dominant components are voice and guitar.
And, in many ways, Nothing I Can Do is quite special to me. In part, that’s because it was the first track I recorded where I took a different approach to singing, where I tried to sing in my low, mid and high range in one song. The piece also showcases my guitar playing throughout, where I did my best to make it both biting and unique.
Historically, Nothing I Can Do never had a full and proper release before. It was briefly a part of a compilation called The Best Of The Region – Rock – ‘94, which showcased artists from the area I was born and raised in, known as “The Region.” This rough and tough area of Northwest Indiana which borders Chicago has some great artistic talent. I was happy to have Nothing I Can Do included in this purposefully limited compilation release.
VIDEO
Since the expanded Conversation album reissue is such an involved project, I thought it would be a great idea to offer something to everyone in the meantime. Since I had the recording and a video, it seemed like a great pick-me-up to share with the fans.
Also, there is an extra surprise I am thrilled to share with you. Click here to check out the video for Nothing I Can Do.
The video features live performance footage candidly shot from 1992 to 1994 throughout Chicagoland by John Anderson, a Grammy-nominated video director for his work on the Brian Wilson presents: SMiLE DVD. The video is raw and real, and I love the grit John Anderson and his partner Colin Carter were able to capture on film.
An early version of the video was shown on JB-TV in Chicago in the mid 90s. When Billy Corgan was a guest on the show, he made the request for a Skafish video to be aired. The station played the early version of Nothing I Can Do.
For a while, the early video was also aired on the now defunct Launch TV channel. That early clip only contained half of the 3rd verse, but the current video, (just released today), has the entire 3rd verse of the song, along with complete credits listed at the end.
The early video edit was recorded during a solo show performance and featured live vocal and guitar over the backing tracks that I had created. However, since the third verse was cut in half by the video’s director, I felt it necessary to change it to use the complete song. So, the new video has the entire third verse, full credits at the end, and contains the studio track to Nothing I Can Do, matching the digital release.
You may notice a very few scenes in the video that have a band onstage with me. Named Jim Skafish & Aliennation, that band was only together for several months in 1994.
AUDIO REMASTERING
As it has been with all of my music releases since 2005, the track was remastered by Trevor Sadler (Madonna, Nine Inch Nails, Ramsey Lewis, David Byrne, Steely Dan, and others).
COVER IMAGE
The cover photo was taken by artist Jeff Mathews at Club Dimensions in Highland Indiana, circa 1990s. The cover design & graphics were done by View Maniac.
Currently, Nothing I Can Do is the only piece available from my Solo Show Era (with many more to come). I hope you connect with it and if you do, please support it, share it, and spread the word in any way you feel inspired to do.
CONVERSATION
FYI: I also wanted to briefly mention that I am still busy working on the expanded Conversation album reissue. There will be exciting news on that front coming and I will keep you posted as the project develops.
Thanks much for everything, and please stay safe, especially during this time.
Skafish
