By Eleni P. Austin
Fernando Perdomo eats, breathes, sleeps and dreams music. When he isn’t conjuring solo albums out of thin air, playing guitar in Marshall Crenshaw’s touring band, or playing with acclaimed singer-songwriter Will Hawkins in their Nine Mile Station band, this musical Mad Hatter can be found in his Forward Motion recording studio producing artists like Feef Mooney and Rebecca Pidgeon.
A gregarious presence on the L.A. music scene, the Miami, Florida native became obsessed with music as a kid. A multi-instrumentalist, by high school, he was part of two very prestigious music programs, The Classical Guitar Ensemble and The Rock Ensemble. Post-matriculation, he sharpened his skills cycling through a series of hometown bands, forging lifelong friendships with fellow wunderkinds like Roger Houdaille and Chris Price. Concurrently, Fern began plying his trade as an in-demand session and studio musician. But by 2012, he pulled up stakes and relocated to Los Angeles. Almost immediately, he reconnected with his old pal Chris.
Something of a polymath, Fernando quickly made a name for himself as a player and producer. With Chris at the helm, he worked on albums by legends like Emit Rhodes and Linda Perhacs. On his own, he played with heavy-hitters like Jakob Dylan, Fiona Apple and Beck. That’s him in the bowler hat playing in the house band for Echo In The Canyon, the music documentary about the legendary Laurel Canyon scene. He’s also produced like-minded artists like Ken Sharp, Cait Brennan and Danny Henry, just to name a few. Google his name sometime, you’ll need to take a lunch break before you get through all his credits.
On his own, he’s been startingly prolific, recording several well-received EPs and long-players throughout the years including Golden Hour, Zebra Crossing, Starcaster and Jangle. He’s also released a series of instrumental records (Out To Sea, volumes 1-5) that scratch his mighty Prog-Rock itch. He’s even gathered together all-star assemblages to pay tribute to classic albums like Paul McCartney’s Ram, known as Ram On, and Todd Rundgren’s Something/Anything? which was released as Someone/Anyone? Currently, a Hall & Oates collection is in the works. Now he’s returned with what might be his 20th solo effort, aptly entitled Self.
Something of a seven-song suite, the album plays out like rollercoaster ride for the soul. It kicks into gear with the introspective “Searching For Myself.” Acoustic arpeggios wrap around swoony Mellotron, thrumming bass, keening electric riffs and a tick-tock beat. This song would sandwich nicely between the ‘70s Soft Rock angst of Bread and the Britpop grit of Oasis. His forlorn vocals mirror the lyrics’ search for psychic sangfroid: “Have you seen this man? Smiling in this picture, he’s been lost for days, have you seen this man, he had his life together, but he lost his way, he looks a lot like me, he looks a lot like me.” As the instrumentation swells, Fernando prowls the streets of his psyche, hoping to reignite that spark of life.
“Search…” quietly folds into the wry and reflective “Everything Leads To Now.” Feathery acoustic notes are anchored by a percolating percussive kick, as string synth and shaker color the margins of the melody. The moody magnificence of the opener is supplanted by a decidedly blasé take on destiny. These lyrical trials and tribulations feel like a fait accompli: “I’ve done a lot of living and it leads to now, I’ve even done some dying, it all leads to now, I’ve done a lot of loving, done some criticizing, I’ve done a lot of waiting and it leads to now.” On the break, the string-synth swirls with ecclesiastic intent, conjuring a cosmic confluence that pairs the pastoral grace of the late, great Nick Drake with the Pure Pop power of Todd Rundgren.
“Optimist Prime” speaks to transformance, hoping to leave anxiety in the rearview. But ambition and ambition collide as soothing mantras are bookended by Mad Scientist keys, Mellotron fuzz, buzzy bass lines, jittery guitars and a caffeinated beat. Even though “Everything is going my way, my way, I’m gonna to live my life my way, my way” the bravado is tempered by more earthly concerns: “I can’t feel the fires burning, I can’t feel the flooding waters now gathering at my knees.” The boing-y arrangement and instrumentation, stutters and struts, trying to outrun reality.
Conversely, the action slows on “Absolute Silence.” A blend of gooey Electrophonic guitar, lush keys, shuddery bass and a relax-fit Bossa Nova beat, the gauzy arrangement cocoons drowsy lyrics that yearn for a past connection: “If dreams are all we have, sleeping is all I’ll do, just to be with you, because if I see you tonight, everything will be alright, cause you’ll be by my side in absolute silence.”
Had The Alan Parsons Project and Starland Vocal Band ever gone over to Pablo Cruise’s house to jam, the results might sound like the album’s most buoyant track, “Who I Really Am.” Shimmering acoustic guitars partner with searing electric riffs, rubbery bass lines, sunny synths and an elastic backbeat. Fernando’s stacked vocals and the feel-good vibe of the arrangement nearly camouflage the lyrics’ steely ultimatum: “I’d rather you love me for who I am, instead of who you think I am.” On the break finger-picked acoustic notes intertwine with prickly electric riff-age before a soaring solo takes flight, locking into a muscular outro.
“All Of Us Under The Same Moon” is a courtly instrumental. Acoustic guitars ripple and cascade, latticing a tender melody that wouldn’t seem out of place in an early ‘70s Afterschool Special It serves a musical palette cleanser, an amuse bouche, as it were, before the record closes with its magnum opus, “Self.”
Clocking in at just under 20 minutes, the title-track offers up a smorgasbord of sounds. Painterly synths align with plangent guitars, willowy mellotron, wiry bass lines and a walloping beat. Inspired by the complex, albeit sunshiny vocal harmonies of The Free Design, Fernado multi-tracks his vocals 16 times over. Self-care, self-indulgence, self-worth and self-awareness is the lyrical leitmotif: “Free yourself, be yourself…look inside your mind, tell us what you find, what makes you, you, tell us what you do, everything leads to now.” As time signatures shift, the arrangement becomes more industrial adding cantilevered beats, clanking keys whirring synths and spiraling guitars. There’s an ebb and flow, that is by turns Pop-y and Prog-y and pslightly Psychedelic. It’s an extravagant finish to another sanguine effort.
As usual, Fernando plays and sings everything on this record. By allowing listeners to drop in to see what condition his condition is in, he has created a sumptuous aural banquet that reveals something new with each spin.
