Hebrew Hammer Drops Full-Length Debut: Eros and Omissions

You may know actor/filmmaker Adam Goldberg from his roles in major motion pictures liked the popular high school stoner flick Dazed and Confused, the gory WWII epic Saving Private Ryan and Jewish comedy The Hebrew Hammer. Or maybe you know him from his appearances on television shows like Friends, Entourage and more recently, The Unusuals. What you may not know is that Goldberg has dabbled in the music scene for nearly 20 years. In 2002, what was once a hobby became a more serious gig as he began a long process of recording tunes that would end up on his debut full-length under the name LANDy. The album, Eros and Omissions, due June 23, is over an hour of experimental indie-rock written and produced by Goldberg that he has been in the making for years. Recorded at a number of different studios with a number of different artists including Flaming Lips multi-instrumentalist Stephen Drozd and The Black Pine, the album is finally complete, and save for a mental breakdown or two, Goldberg has emerged unharmed and was happy to share some insight on the project.

Some of the songs on Eros and Omissions veer from straight indie-rock to more experimental sounding arrangements. Was this something you had in mind, or did it develop when you were writing/recording?

There was never a conscious decision to change directives or styles, though I suppose each song is of it’s time and place. I did start playing piano and writing with piano with more frequency and I think this ends up accounting for the sound shift. In general the songs I’m able to write on piano and those I’m able to write on keyboards are pretty different, by default more than anything else.

Eros and Omissions is more of a collection of songs – some that you’ve been working on for years – rather than a traditional album. Was it hard to stay focused on how you wanted the final product to turn out due to the sporadic evolution of the record?

What began as a collection of recordings for the shear sake of recording at a certain point became more focused: around the time I worked with Steven Drozd [of the Flaming Lips] in Oklahoma in a “proper” studio setting. Since there was no deadline and my goals were unclear I just continued to record a song each time I wrote one.

Were there any songs that you had thought were complete a while ago that you came back to and refined before making the final cut?

Lots of the songs were works in progress, including the Oklahoma sessions which I was very happy with the recordings of. But there were lots of different mixes, home overdubs I made, and as recently as last year would replace a vocal here or there. But for the most part, the songs were only revisited in the sense that they needed to be “properly” mixed and mastered. One of my favorites didn’t make the cut because it was just too lo-fi to fit the song, and Aaron [Espinoza] and I ran out of time (and money).
Where do you get your lyrical inspiration?

Early on (long before any of this stuff was recorded) I’d write poems or songs and set music to them, but for the most part these days it’s the other way around or it’s done simultaneously. A lot of times I keep the lyrics that I’m singing just to work the tune out. That’s a nice long pretentious response to a question that could be more simply answered: myself and all my little issues.

How did you meet Stephen Drozd of the Flaming Lips and what was it like working with him?

I was a huge Flaming Lips fan and it had come to my attention that Steven had a man-crush on me. I met him after the first show of theirs I saw. I then reciprocated his crush. He’s simply one of the most talented and humble people on the planet. Our sensibilities were simple enough, thankfully, that I could play him a demo, call out some instrumentation and arrangement concepts and he could translate these into ridiculous parts and harmonies in the time it would take most people to make a record…or live.

Have you performed live as LANDy yet? If so, what can one expect at a LANDy concert? If not, what are your plans for performances?

We’ve played twice as a seven-piece. I just added a trumpet player, the great Andrew Lynch (who plays and engineered some of the recent stuff). It’s terrifying and frustrating and all that studio control just goes right out the old window. But I’m determined and I’m really proud of everybody. Nobody’s a ringer and we’re all struggling to make sense of this in live setting, but it’s really coming along I think. Violin, trumpet, melodica, keyboards, Space Echos, etc. Trying our best to make it a show, to have a vibe, rather than just “playing” the songs. We’ll see…

How did you find time to focus on music with all of your other film/television projects?

I’m, some might say, a bit manic at times. And the acting never really interfered since it just exercises a completely different muscle. And I probably am unemployed roughly half the time anyway.

What can we expect from Adam Goldberg/LANDy in the future?

You can expect LANDy to rock your world – depending on whether or not these recently discovered accessory ribs of mine continue to impinge on a huge nerve cluster.