Rock Record
“Magestic. A dreamy-breezy confession ... lit up with contrails of Neil Young–style electric guitar.” - LA Weekly
“A robust, fully formed Americana-rock album.” - Buzzbands LA
“I was listening to a lot of Led Zeppelin and hiding out in a rented room in a 1920s house in the Hollywood Hills. I hadn’t performed in many years and definitely had not considered starting a band, much less making a new record.
The piano was too big for my room so it lived in the garage, which had 12-inch cement walls and could be accessed via a brick passageway and a wooden ladder just outside my room. The Bunker. I would write down there with the paint cans and the old deck chairs, secluded from the world.
I had been out of the scene for several years, going to grad school, working as a learning specialist, still writing but focused on other things.
Above: Chris Harrison
After Aaron and I ran into each other at a party and discussed the aforementioned Led Zeppelin obsession, we started working together at The Bunker, playing Dwight Yoakam and Leon Russell songs. He also shared some unfinished songs he’d been working on. I couldn’t help but try to finish them. I saw those songs as an exercise, stuff he’d perform with his band. I’d never cowritten anything unless under instruction to do so from my Berklee professors, but it felt safer and like less of a commitment writing something for him than to share my own work.
L to R: Aaron Kyle (guitar), Jonathan Price (bass), Brian Soika (drums)
Dwight and Leon were the gateway. Pretty soon, Aaron invited (guitar player) Chris Harrison over to the garage to play and it sounded too good not to get a bass player and drummer, so we recruited Brian Soika (drums) and Jonathan Price (bass). For New Year’s Eve 2017 we learned 30 songs by everyone who had passed that year. Tom Petty, Fats Domino, Glenn Campbell, Walter Becker. It was a crash course in rock and a great way for us to get to know each. Aaron convinced me to play a few of the songs we’d been working on and pretty soon we were meeting with Joe Napolitano who had just moved in to Barefoot Studios in Hollywood.
The famous Crystal Sound comic.
Barefoot was originally the old Crystal Sound where Stevie Wonder recorded “Talking Book” and “Songs in the Key of Life” and “Hotter Than July”. I got to play his nine-foot Yamaha grand piano. It was pretty special. I also got to play vibraphone on the last track of the record, which was pretty fun and something I’d never done before. So much of the music that has been my go-to from the start was all made in this twelve-block radius in Hollywood. All these studios, warehouse type buildings that look like nothing from the street, were making huge singles and seminal albums: Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Fleetwood Mac, even Zeppelin came through. And now here we were in this new era for Barefoot. I’m really proud to say that this record was the first full-length finished for Studio B.
Rock Record really is a Hollywood album -- The Bunker in the hills, Barefoot on Vine, and we mastered it at Capitol. We named it Rock Record to signify the departure from my more singer-songwriter folk music from ten years ago, and as a thank you to the rock music that helped me through some pretty dark times coming off of Television City and shifting gears around education and music. As much as I tried to stay quiet and hidden, sometimes you just need that catharsis that comes from turning up and playing with a band. There’s a sense of risk to this music and a sense of urgency. The doors are wide open, the unknown beckons, and summer won’t wait another hour.
Vibraphone set up at Barefoot Studios
Press photo by Peter Baker
Record Release poster by d.norsen
LIZ PAPPADEMAS
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ABOUT
Liz Pappademas is an American singer songwriter, pianist, and educator.
Born in a New York City Checker taxicab and raised in San Francisco, Liz graduated from Berklee College of Music where she won the SESAC Award for songwriting and a John Lennon Songwriting Contest scholarship.
Touring both solo and as a member of various bands, Liz began her professional career in Austin, Texas with her trio Hurts to Purr. She has performed three times at the South by Southwest music festival and has been featured on local radio and NPR’s All Songs Considered.
Known for poetic lyrics with affecting melodies, Liz is influenced by songwriters and film composers who share her interest in telling stories: Randy Newman, Ennio Morricone, Tom Waits, Aimee Mann, Joni Mitchell, and others.
In 2012, Liz returned to school to study special education at California State University, Northridge. Her master’s thesis explored parallels between academic homework and music practice and the inherent challenges in both for students with learning disabilities. She became K-12 Director of Learning Services at Sequoyah School in Pasadena in 2022. She lives in Los Angeles.
Liz Pappademas is an American singer songwriter, pianist, and educator.
Born in a New York City Checker taxicab and raised in San Francisco, Liz graduated from Berklee College of Music where she won the SESAC Award for songwriting and a John Lennon Songwriting Contest scholarship.
Touring both solo and as a member of various bands, Liz began her professional career in Austin, Texas with her trio Hurts to Purr. She has performed three times at the South by Southwest music festival and has been featured on local radio and NPR’s All Songs Considered.
Known for poetic lyrics with affecting melodies, Liz is influenced by songwriters and film composers who share her interest in telling stories: Randy Newman, Ennio Morricone, Tom Waits, Aimee Mann, Joni Mitchell, and others.
In 2012, Liz returned to school to study special education at California State University, Northridge. Her master’s thesis explored parallels between academic homework and music practice and the inherent challenges in both for students with learning disabilities. She became K-12 Director of Learning Services at Sequoyah School in Pasadena in 2022. She lives in Los Angeles.