'Hollywood Royalty' by Essential Forever - It's Psychedelic Baby Magazine

Exclusive premiere of ‘Hollywood Royalty’ by Essential Forever. The single is a good bridge between Heaney’s previous pop-rock songwriting in Jungle Green and taking on a layered, wall of sound approach with his upcoming album.

‘Hollywood Royalty’ was recorded at Kevin Basko’s studio (former Foxygen live band member, who’s also known as Rubber Band Gun), filling the entire studio room with musicians recording live as a miniature orchestra.

Al Heaney’s idea for his music project began after digging through record stores, collecting essential compilations from artists he had never listened to before in the dollar-bins. He wanted to write an album from the perspective of a forgotten crooner, as if from a character who is the most prolific artist no one has ever heard of. Essential Forever’s new album, ‘There’s A Lot Still To Say About Essential Forever’, spins like a pop opera anthology from an undiscovered AM era crooner dug out of the dustiest crate in the shop.

As a member and collaborator of the lively pop-rock band Jungle Green, Heaney further explores the sepia-tinted radio pop he’d grown obsessed with through Essential Forever. Thanks to a pack of talented collaborators rounding out the composition and producer Kevin Basko (aka Rubber Band Gun), each track on ‘A Lot Still To Say’ stands on its own as a pop gem. But it’s Heaney’s modernist take and sterling voice that makes Essential Forever’s latest feel like those beloved greatest hits records: “I wanted to write songs that can help people fall in love a hundred times over.”

“I grew up in the suburbs in Ohio, where Hollywood was this untouchable universe. With this project, I can celebrate my love for a period in music while also using its language to express new ideas. Kevin Basko produced this track at his studio called Historic New Jersey. The room was filled with live musicians and we recorded live with the ‘straight to jukebox’ grand beauty of Phil Spector’s hits. I’m taking the perspective of the artist standing outside the ivy-covered gates of Hollywood, locked out and saying ‘Hey, let me in!… Please?’ When playing this character of Essential Forever, or the greatest hitmaker from the past that no one has ever heard of before, ‘Hollywood Royalty’ is the first great hit of Essential Forever’s long career.”

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