New album finally launched! So,.... what exactly is a "Television Graveyard"?

Enzo as "Renegade ZO"

So the new album is finally out and a huge weight (and wait) is off my creative shoulders. It's been a very interesting and rewarding journey mainly because of the fact that I set out to write an album like this and it turned out as I'd hoped.  So what exactly was the plan and what is Television Graveyard all about?

The phrase "Television Graveyard" came to me as I drove around LA seeing all the billboards for TV shows and movies. Some long past and even canceled.  This felt really weird and dystopian and sparked an idea.  In many ways what I saw on the billboards felt like the music industry in general.  Singing competition reality shows are not really about music to me. Actual songwriting music artists have been relegated to the white noise static of the internet where rising out of the obscurity seems near impossible.  I personally have no interest or need for fame of any kind so in many ways the static feels very comfortable.  That inner thought snowballed the writing of the song and the entire look of the album. I thought to myself, "I will own the static, sing from it, appear in it and then disappear back into it. I will do it with absolute conviction and belief in my songwriting like a rogue pirate radio station of independent music." Once that thought hit me I knew it would carry me through to the completion of the album and even into the look of the pending video shoots.

After releasing the first album I wanted to push myself to make Television Graveyard almost a counter to it. "Plunger Lapin & The Last Rites of Love" was very personal and conceptual. With Television Graveyard I switched gears and started writing from what I saw around me. I imagined the lives of people I saw living in this big city.  I tried to see from their perspective as if I were them. How did they feel about their lives and situation? I let my feelings and thoughts wonder and found songs there. Songs I wouldn't have written if I only wrote from my standpoint.  This was very exciting to me. Everyone felt like a song waiting to be written.  I also noticed that I listened more to what others expressed. Listened closely!  I also wanted the feeling of the album to be slick, volatile, exciting, dance-able, and sexy but still with a strong (and truthful) emotional core. Songs like "Detour Ahead" and "The Driver" are great examples of this.

Also with the songs from my own standpoint, I wanted to rethink how I explained and expressed. In "Brand New Skin" I sing about my obsession with makeup art and reinvention in general. If I'm truthful, this mindset in me is a bit manic so the song should be also. Or take the song "Through the Wasp's Eye". This song speaks to my creative drive and process. If I really look at that truthfully, It's a bit strange, like an ant or Wasp's life would be odd to a human. I no longer really rest. I'm always working, like a bee would in a hive and that's strange, even to me. Because of this the song is probably the strangest on the album (of course one of my favorites).

Lastly my new "look" for this phase I call "Renegade Zo".  For me he represents a part of my personality that is absolutely relentless, won't quit, can't quit and will do whatever it takes to accomplish things. As the album concept started to form, the Renegade Zo aspects of my psyche started to propel me forward. This helped because as an independent artist everything about the music business can seem to work against you. To someone like Renegade Zo that is irrelevant and will not stop "us" from writing, recording, producing and releasing a great album entirely on our own. I'm extremely pleased with the results and I hope others enjoy it as well. -Enzo

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/enzosprigg5

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