Matt Jalbert has spent his career as the guitarist in TAUK, a band that plays instrumental music and has never needed a singer. His first solo album changes that. Somebody's Child arrives on 20 November through ELM Records, and the title track is out now as its first single.
The eight-song record is the first on which Jalbert writes lyrics and sings them, a departure he describes as having arrived late. He told JamBase he kept wondering whether it was too late to start writing lyrics in his thirties, with so many songwriters having started far earlier, and then found that the question stopped mattering once he was actually doing it.
He recorded at Tone Town studio in Los Angeles and co-produced with Curtis Kelley and Devin Runco, who also play drums and bass on the album. Steve Watkins adds keyboards. That is a small, fixed cast for a debut, and it keeps the record closer to a band session than to a guitarist overdubbing everything himself.
The title track is the song Jalbert wrote first, and its subject is the doubt that preceded it. "You make things because it's fun to make things," he said of the childlike instinct the song tries to hold on to. A music video accompanies the release.
TAUK built its audience in the jam circuit, where instrumental bands can sustain a live following without ever putting a voice out front. Stepping into lyrics is a real risk in that world, because an audience that comes for playing does not automatically stay for singing.
Jalbert is taking the material out live over Halloween weekend on a run with Natalie Brooke. His solo touring band draws on the same scene: Ben Atkind on drums, Eli Winderman on keys, Jonathan Colman on bass and Adam November on guitar, which frees Jalbert to front the songs rather than carry them on guitar alone.
TAUK's own dates continue through the autumn, so the solo project is running alongside the band rather than replacing it. No word has been given on whether the solo band will extend past the Halloween run.
Somebody's Child joins the November releases we are tracking on the release calendar, and more guitar-led records of this kind sit on our rock hub.
The facts
- Matt Jalbert's solo album Somebody's Child is due 20 November on ELM Records.
- The title track is out now as the first single.
- It is the first record on which Jalbert writes lyrics and sings.
- Jalbert plays guitar in the instrumental band TAUK.
- The eight-song album was cut at Tone Town studio in Los Angeles.
- He co-produced it with Curtis Kelley and Devin Runco, who play drums and bass.
- Steve Watkins plays keyboards on the record.
- Jalbert plays a Halloween weekend run with Natalie Brooke.
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