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Kleen 2013:  History.  

Kleen’s legacy  began in 2005 with the band Unloaded. Unloaded was a 4-piece guitar-driven band (Bob D., Chris D., Lei S,) that was focusing upon creating and playing original recovery music.  Bob and I co-wrote our first song, Go I.  This song has morphed through several different presentations; however, any time we do it live it is at least a 7-minute anthemic rocker during which Bob always catches a little Jimmy Page and just shreds the central guitar pieces.  It is a fun song to play. By 2006, we had amassed enough original material to make our first foray into the studio and recorded UNLOADED at the end of that year.  We recorded that EP with Bud Snyder at his Spirit Garden studio on Siesta Key (which later became Spirit Ranch).  The EP contains five (5) songs:  Crawling and SurrendHer written by me; Go I co-written with Bob; Time written by Bob and Careless written by my friend Keith Otte.  While it was a valiant sophomore effort it never moved beyond local distribution.  I think we still have like 500 CDs from that original pressing.  If you are interested in hearing this early work you can download free the five songs here:
 

UNLOADED  2006
 
In 2007, Unloaded broke up and I focused upon writing.  I resurrected Martha, which I had written in 1990 and recorded it in 2008 with Adam Fox engineering it for his senior project to complete his degree in sound engineering from the International Academy of Art and Design in Tampa.  It came out great and was later included on Grace and Grit.   Adam and his colleagues in the Gulf Gate Project, who do excellent dance music and electronica, work-shopped Willingness and made a very cool club mix with the acoustic version, which also ended up on Grace and Grit.  I spent most of 2007 and early 2008 writing.  Bitter End, IOU, White Knuckle, Willingness and Second Best came from this writing period.
 
Lisa had sang background vox on the Unloaded EP and in 2008 we began working together as a duet and began performing as Kleen.   During this time we both met and began working with Danny Ellis, who coached us vocally and helped us to craft most of those very cool harmonies throughout Grace and Grit and Kleen 2013.   Danny has been the single biggest influence on our music and me as a musician.  In addition to being a vocal genius (he was doing background arrangements at Abbey Road back in the day), Danny is probably the most spiritually evolved person that I have ever met.  Don’t believe me?  Download and listen to 800 Voices or read The Boy at the Gate.  See if these two works of art do not touch you in places that nothing else ever has.  We recoded all the vocals for Grace and Grit at Danny’s studio in Asheville, NC.  We also recorded all the vocals for Kleen 2013 there.  Danny’s spirit and kindness is infused all through both those works.
 
In late 2007 or early 2008, I wrote Second Best as an attempt to give Lisa something to vocally sink her teeth into.  The ballad is a mosaic comparing relationships in active addition and then in recovery.  We both ended up really liking this song and wanted to try to take this song to a new level.  We hired the producer and drummer from Sister Hazel (Ken Kelly and Mark Trojanowski) to help us create a pop version of Second Best.  We recorded it in the Spring of 2008 at Ken’s studio in Clearwater and Ken did some excellent post-production to create the  excellent version you hear on both Grace and Grit and on Kleen 2013 (re-mastered by Adam Fox).  So, in 2008 we went back to the studio at Spirit Rance with Bud Snyder to record Grace and Grit as Kleen.  That album was completed and released in mid-2008 and enjoyed some regional distribution.  However, the production and playing quality was still not at the level that would allow for national/international distribution.  It was great to give copies to our friends and to sell at shows, but almost as soon as it was done I was itching to do a full-scale production with professional players, producers and engineers.  It has taken five years to complete this process.

 

Lisa decided in 2009 to focus her energies on her family and singing in her church.  We did not play any gigs together or even rehears for over two years. During this time I wrote all of the new material (First Time, I Believe, Hope, Secrets, Just This Morning) but played out very little—I think I may have done two solo gigs in those two years.  In late 2010, this idea of a full-scale production album began gnawing at the back of my neck again.  I again sought out Ken Kelly and we began to discuss this project.  Commensurate with this intention to do the album, Lisa was ready to sing together again and we began producing a bi-monthly original recovery music showcase in Sarasota called Just for Tonight.  We did five of these shows throughout late 2011 and early 2012.  We used these shows as an opportunity to showcase new material and tried, unsuccessfully, to create some buzz and excitement among the recovery community for this album.  I had envisioned developing a community of support and ownership among the recovering community in Sarasota for this album but that intention just never caught fire.
 
Working with Ken throughout this time, we spent almost a year in pre-production.  As we moved toward the tracking date in late 2011, things began to fall apart between Ken and I.  It became apparent that Ken was not the right person for us to work with on this project.  I wish that I could just trust the process when stuff like this happens but, alas,  I am not there yet.  When Kleen parted ways with Ken I was crestfallen, depressed and demoralized.  I had put some much energy and effort into this project just to watch it all go POOF!.  And, I lost $5000 in the process.
 
On of my favorite saying in the rooms is:  God does God sh*t better than you do!  It took all those painful experiences to get us where we are today. After a few weeks of feeling sorry for myself, I dusted myself off, prayed, and reached out for help.  I called Gracie Vandiver in Nashville.  Gracie owns Sunlight of the Spirit—a clearinghouse for faith-based and recovery-focused music.  I had spoken to Gracie after completing Grace and Grit and she agreed to retail it from her website.  So, when I called her in March of 2012 asking for her help in locating a studio and producer, she told me about Paul Scholten and County Q Studio..

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