NEW JDA INTERVIEW

Where did the CD title come from?
Astron. an alignment of three celestial objects, as the sun, the earth, and either the moon or a planet: Syzygy in the sun-earth-moon system occurs at the time of full moon and new moon.
(Arno) I wanted to use it as a vanity license plate at one time, always thought it was a cool concept .
(Joel) We all \lquote signed off\rquote on it when we read the definition.

Are all three members of JDA credited for writing the songs?
(Don) We all wrote many things together this time,
(Joel) Lots more reworking and co writing happened
(Arno) I brought more to the table this time around, both in writing and arranging
(Joel) Arno re-arranged completely the songs and You Are Free.

How many songs did you start with when you began this project, how many got scrapped and why did the ones edited not meet the standards?
(Joel) We never have specific collections of songs when we start a project.
(Don) It kind of takes on a life of it's own, with the songs going through some re-writes and re-arranging as we go on.
(Arno) No songs got scrapped, actually, but some were extensively re-worked. At the beginning we ran a few demos by each other, and selected those we were interested in, some songs didn't speak to us like others did.

Who of the three musicians on this new CD is playing what instrument(s)?
(Arno) We ALL are. I played electric lead guitar, electric rhythm guitar, lap steel guitar, acoustic 12-string and six-string, electric 12-string, percussion, bass, and sang lead and backing vocals.
(Don)I sang most of the lead vocals, backing vocals, piano, organ, and percussion.
(Joel) I played organ, piano, synthesizers, the orchestrations, acoustic six-string, electric rhythm guitar, bass, percussion, drum machine, and sang lead and backing vocals.

For those of us who have heard a lot of JDA before, do you consider this CD typical or atypical JDA material? And if you feel it is different, then how does it stray from whatever formula JDA uses?
(Arno) There is a lot more richness and development on this one. The one thing we try consciously not to do is to repeat ourselves in an obvious way.
(Don) One thing we have done is to use a wide variety of different guitar sounds.
(Joel) Ditto for the keyboard sounds, and we also strove for a much more of a band feel and not so much the epics, thought there are a couple of bigger pieces.
(Don) We also worked extensively on good vocal harmonies in a lot of the songs, and duets.
(Joel) One thing we are going to be doing in the future is a bona-fide concept album.

That will have a formula, obviously. What is the highpoint and low point of the CD?
(Arno) The way the vocals are developed, the experience as a whole has been great. And "Someday" is a gem. Those are some of my hi-light points.
(Don) I loved the way some songs just wrote themselves, like the lyrics of Like Beginnings" was almost instantaneous. The birth and shaping of "Making Up for Lost Time" was also a blast.
(Joel) "I Wanna Believe" was a great joy, as well as the look on Don's face when we played him the musical arrangement of "Making Up for Lost Time" for the first time., On the other hand, the low points were almost losing the tracks to "Lost Time" , and almost having to scrap "I Wanna Believe" until we re-arranged it.
(Don) Low point was definitely when Joel called me saying he had lost the tracks to "Making Up For Lost Time" , though we were able to save it. A funny low point is when I traveled all the way to the studio to find I was unable to sing, and the sounds that came out were hilarious.
(Arno)The "Lost Time" debacle was a real downer, but we saved it, having a panic attack over a new song because we realized it was too close to another band's tune was no fun, but we fixed that too.

Do you, like many performers, feel that your most recent work is your best?
(Don) Right now I'd say yes, I am really excited about our collective drive and input, and output.
(Joel) I feel the quality of our production and writing has steadily improved, and is the best it has ever been
(Arno) Yeah, it is our best so far, though I do have some favorites from the others.

Many songwriters say they just keep writing songs because they are searching for the perfect one and when that comes along their art will go downhill from there. How does this present CD fit into a philosophy like that?
(Arno) Music, is about the process, it is the journey, not the destination. This CD is part of the process, we have not made the "perfect one" yet, and I doubt we ever will.
(Don) At the risk of sounding silly, the little musical ideas that blossom for us are sort of unique, like snowflakes. I don't think there is an end in sight at this point.
(Joel) This is not the end, it is a new beginning, we feel excited about it. Jeez! We do get full of ourselves with the trite and true, but I can speak for all of us when I say that this CD does not fit the philosophy of the question at all.