• Your professional life as a chip designer has run parallel to decades of musical creation, from choral singing—including a performance with Pavarotti—to composing across disparate styles. How has this dual existence informed your ability to move fluidly between genres without feeling constrained by any single tradition?

There’s that whole popular myth about a connection between math and music, but I don’t think that’s what defines me. I grew up with a house full of classical, pop, and jazz, which my parents enjoyed equally, and I was also a clever boy with science. Then there came prog rock and jazz fusion – ELP, Yes, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Return to Forever – and it was for me like, “Aha! You can mix all these together and it works!” In high school I started building my own synth from scratch. So my creative impulses span all that space.

• After a Fashion deliberately draws from influences spanning Ella Fitzgerald, Marvin Gaye, and Toro y Moi, yet coalesces into a cohesive whole. What guided your approach to weaving these disparate references into a unified statement that feels both contemporary and timeless?

Well, thank you for the ups! It was a matter of patience – or maybe impatience. During the second half of 2025 I had a few songs like Put a Scarf and Could Happen in the can, but I waited for other ideas to coalesce to flesh out a full album. I could have done a full dreampop album if I went long enough, but I embraced the mix of idioms that I was working with at the time.

• The album’s thematic core examines the “scary edges of romance” amid a fearful present. In what ways did global events and personal reflection shape the lyrical undercurrents across tracks such as “Man on a Wire” and “Blow Me Away”?

The key idea came from Ella’s Isn’t It Romantic, which I heard in my head not simply as a lovey-dovey ballad, but as being full of doubt, shadows, and strange voices. So I change the setting to use mysterious tone clusters and disjointed percussion and bass. Aside from that, the awfulness blaring from the news recently seeped into my mind and personal relationships big time. Thus “Go Out Tonight” takes what could have been a joyful Motown dance tune and say, hey, yeah, go clubbing, but make sure you know where the exit doors are. My family was actually recently trapped in a theater while police cleared a street action outside! Every song has some element of uncertainty, confusion, or wildly overblown emotions. Man on a Wire is mostly a peppy 80’s style recitation of famous books and movies starting with “Man” or “Woman” but then minor chords and tone clusters appear, and the lyrics turn into discord between a couple. Blow Me Away is about letting someone else dictate my emotions, taking advantage of my lost state.

• As both sole producer and primary instrumentalist—augmented only by select guest vocalists—how did the self-contained recording process allow you to realize the album’s intricate layering of MIDI elements, synth textures, and organic instrumentation in a way that earlier collaborative projects could not?

Again, thanks for noticing! I mostly start with my own beats, guitars, bass, and keyboards, but I also made use of some new plugins I discovered and some drum loops that were more authentic than I could generate. I really try to emulate great producers who can pull off complexity on a track without turning it into mush. But I know my limitations, so that’s where the collaboration comes in – like when I needed kick-ass vocalists for a couple songs.

• Songs like “Could Happen (2025 version)” and “Little Queen (Crown Pleaser version)” suggest a revisiting or refinement of prior material. What prompted these specific reimaginings, and how do they illustrate the album’s broader meditation on style as both approximation and literal expression?

“Could Happen” is one of my Cocteau Twins tribute songs. It’s definitely less dark than the other tracks, but it’s about recovering from a dark place lovers got into. The funk track, Little Queen (no relation to Heart’s!) is super upbeat, but it’s also about the danger of a relationship where there’s a huge power disparity.

• The title After a Fashion carries dual meanings of approximation and personal style. How does this concept encapsulate your refusal to be confined by labels, and in what manner does the record serve as a deliberate statement of artistic freedom at this stage of your career?

The third meaning is the acknowledgement that I’m basically a dilettante! I am just a suburban industry outsider borrowing a lot from original musical idioms. Being self-funded and self-produced means I can just put out what interests me and hope it resonates.

• Collaborations with local artists such as Paul Paternoster, Patrick Ames, and Chana Matthews have been a consistent thread since 2022. In what ways did those experiences prepare the ground for the fully autonomous yet outwardly expansive approach taken on After a Fashion?

Working with these awesome folks, we can be each other’s first audience. There’s peril in sitting alone in my studio with only those walls as the horizon.

• With After a Fashion now released, what new compositional directions or collaborative formats are you pursuing next, and how do you envision these future works continuing to explore the tension between technical precision and untethered musical curiosity?

I’ll be recording a fairly major work for chorus and synth pipe organ in May. Also, a while back I really wanted to develop a new kind of music platform that allowed people to play with artists’ stems and easily create and share their own versions of their songs. Maybe I’ll revisit that for a piece or two, because it is both a technical and compositional challenge.

The music moves like a steady pulse beneath the skin. Flecks of ’80s rock warmth surface briefly, brushed by contemporary soul and softened by funk-inflected restraint. The groove never pushes forward aggressively; instead, it carries the song with an ease that feels instinctual. Batera’s rhythmic sensibility is felt not in excess, but in balance; in how each phrase lands, breathes, and lets go.

The song’s emotional center rests in a refrain that resists embellishment. Its words are plain, almost conversational, yet repeated with a quiet resolve that gives them weight. Rather than convincing the listener of love’s permanence, it simply inhabits it. The result is intimacy without performance, commitment without declaration.

Strings drift in with a hushed elegance, arranged with the participation of a member of Roupa Nova. They don’t announce themselves; they shimmer at the edges, adding a cinematic softness that lifts the song without ever overshadowing it.

Though shaped by a life between Brazil and Lisbon, Milton Batera’s Pra Sempre, Unexpectedly, feels unanchored to place. It speaks in a universal emotional language about love, that doesn’t arrive with fireworks, but stays precisely because it never needed them!

Oreaganomics is an art-rock band hailing from Lincoln, but their music encompasses much more than just that genre. Their newest single, “Everything is Legal,” debuted on February 6, 2025. Let’s dive in and share more details below.

What we know about Frank Richman is little. He’s fond of bananas, probably based in the Dutch capital Amsterdam, and he’s backed by an insanely gifted ensemble. ’99 Fire’ is an outstanding piece of funk. Timeless, truly. ’99 Funk’ is a song that cannot be hated. A groovy masterpiece rich with syncopation, charisma, and ever-so-impressive vocal howls from an astoundingly talented singer.

The absurdity behind all the bananas on the album art and all over the video only adds to the charm of all that Frank Richman currently stands for. ’99 Fire’ jams along with a lively pace that’s lush with sparkling funk guitars, tight as they should be, blaring horn leads that are just ever-so-sweet, a terrific rhythm section performance that’s solid as bone, and on top of it all, a vocal delivery that melts paint right off the wall. Frank Richman’s ensemble is full of exceptional musicians. 

’99 Fire’ also features a brilliant mix. Efficient and easy on the senses, the song has a sound that goes directly to the heart. A fantastic release by a mysterious new talent that’s already receiving well-earned radio time, Frank Richman is captivating.