Daryl Hall is in the mixing phase for “Laughing Down Crying,” his first new solo album in a dozen years.
Hall has been working on the album, which is due out this fall on Verve Records, “for quite a while.” It marks his first release since “Can't Stop Dreaming,” which came out in 1999 internationally and 2003 in the U.S., and is, according to Hall, “a very aggressive album. It's relatively stripped down. It's got a lot of heart. It deals with a pretty intense emotional landscape, I think, and stylistically I'd call it sort of the box set of my mind. There are elements from the early days of my writing all the way through today.”
He adds that the songs are “very adaptable for live playing,” an outgrowth of his award-winning “Live From Daryl's House” Internet series. “The 'Daryl's House' thing has made me into a live musician even more than I ever was, and even in the way I record,” Hall explains.
Hall worked on the album mostly with longtime collaborator T-Bone Wolk, who died in February 2010, as well as guitarist Paul Pesco and keyboardist Greg Bieck. Some musicians from his regular band took part in the sessions, and Hall says the album also features “a few guests, which I don't want to talk about yet.” The title, he says, “means you don't know what the fuck is going on.”
Earlier this month Hall, premiered the 42nd episode of “Live From Daryl's House,” featuring Goo Goo Dolls frontman John Rzeznik, who Hall calls “a real kindred soul.” After a New Year's Eve special on WGN America, the series is headed into syndication this fall, but Hall says he still believes “in the Internet as the future” he's happy to have a broader platform for the show.
“Television is still a big factor in getting to a lot of people,” he explains, “so I think that I'm going to get a slightly different audience…I think that it will be perceived slightly differently, but the numbers are obviously going to get bigger and bigger just being on television. But I am not changing anything…I'm not adapting the show at all in any way to be a 'TV' show.”
Hall is also hoping the TV affiliation will expedite his ability to release DVDs of the episodes. “It's all going to come eventually,” he says. “There's a lot of business things, clearances and dealing with record companies and the artists themselves — a lot of roadblocks to just throwing something out when everything I do is collaboration. But we're working on that stuff, and having it on regular television as well as the Internet helps to solve any business difficulties.”
Hall and John Oates kick off a run of summer dates on June 8 in Holmdel, N.J., that includes a three-night stand at the Hollywood Bowl July 2-4.
You can read more about Daryl's album in this Reuters article