Music

Isaac Alexander rolling out Like A Sinking Stone

Album cover for Isaac Alexander's "Like a Sinking Stone"
Album cover for Isaac Alexander's "Like a Sinking Stone"

That's an ugly shiner Isaac Alexander is sporting on the cover of his latest solo album, Like a Sinking Stone. Probably the painful but proudly worn souvenir of some late night, rock 'n' roll shenanigans, right?

Nah.

Isaac Alexander Record Release Show

Opening act: Bonnie Montgomery

9 p.m. Saturday, White Water Tavern, 2500 W. Seventh St., Little Rock

Admission: $5

(501) 375-8400

whitewatertavern.com

"I have weak stomach and I faint easily," the 41-year-old Alexander says when asked about the image. "My daughter had a nosebleed and I fainted and hit my face on the coffee table."

Ouch.

"After it happened and I took that picture, I knew immediately that I could use it for something."

That he slapped it on the front of Like a Sinking Stone is entirely apt. The 10-song album, released on Little Rock label Max Recordings, is at times a rumination on bruised dreams and lost potential, all conveyed with a wry, knowing wit. Alexander stares down the barrel of a middle-age reckoning as the album's adult, singer-songwriter pop unfolds. A record release party is set for Saturday night at the White Water Tavern in Little Rock. Bonnie Montgomery will open.

"I hear a lot that my stuff is sort of dark and sad. I think that's probably true, but it's not necessarily what I'm going for," he says. "Hopefully, people can see the humor in it. I didn't want it to be this sad, coming-to-grips, dire thing."

THE DAY JOB

While his solo work and output in bands Big Silver, The Easys and The Boondogs is prolific, music is not his full-time gig. Alexander and his wife, Angela, have been married 16 years and are parents to daughters Violet, 10, and Posey, 7; he's also the Isaac in Eric Rob & Isaac, the Little Rock advertising agency he started 12 years ago with his friends Eric Lancaster and Rob Bell.

It was in a meeting room at the firm's offices above the Flying Fish restaurant in the Little Rock River Market District that Alexander spoke about making music and the new album earlier this month. Unlike the dapper, fictional advertising executives from the TV series Mad Men, he sported jeans, a red and black flannel button-down over a black T-shirt and an Atlanta Braves cap.

To eke out a little time for songwriting in his busy schedule, he likes to slip away to an office he keeps at Fellowship Hall Sound, the recording studio of his friend and bandmate Jason Weinheimer.

"It's more like sneaking out after everybody is asleep and then staying up too late," he says. "It's a nice hangout, and Jason has a great collection of vintage gear."

In the past, Alexander kept his professional life apart from his music: "I've always tried to live separate lives. I have this day job situation, but it's an ad agency, that's not very rock 'n' roll, so when I write songs, I try to pretend that's not even there."

His approach changed, though, on the new album, his third solo outing after 2008's See Thru Me and 2012's Antivenin Suite.

"This record is almost like, 'Yeah, this is who I am,' but still, it is odd to hear songs about working late in an office," he says.

The title track, with its sleepy pace, is a rueful take on careerism, suburban ennui and realizing that maybe you're not so special after all. "How does it feel to be controlled/your direction's well known," Alexander sings, later adding, "If there was any left/you'd pull out your hair."

The self-aware "This Mind of Mine" has Alexander warily keeping tabs on his own wandering thoughts, while a twinkling vibraphone gives "Two Notes" an orchestral, midcentury sheen. Splitting the album in half is "The Fence," which starts with heavy guitar before settling into a Big Star-like groove. "Hum the Tune," the final track, is a jaunty vamp that sounds like Wilco in a playful mood and, early on, was supposed to set the tone for the entire album.

"That was the first song we did," Alexander says. "My intention was to actually make a groovy, party record, something you could put on as background music at a party. Obviously, things took a different direction."

'NATURAL AND GENUINE'

Recorded in Nashville, Tenn., with producer and Hot Springs native Joe McMahan, who was also behind the board for the earlier solo records, Like a Sinking Stone took about two years to complete.

"Isaac integrates a lot of different pop elements in his music," McMahan says from Nashville before heading out on tour as part of the backing band for sisters Shelby Lynne and Allison Moorer. "He can take from the melodic sensibilities of Paul McCartney or The Kinks but by the time he digests that and it comes back out, it still has Arkansas on it. I love that. It's very natural and genuine."

Alexander commuted to Nashville to record, where McMahan gathered a band to play behind him, which freed up the singer-songwriter.

"I play very little on the record," Alexander says. "There's some acoustic guitar here and there, but it's mainly just me sitting in front of a microphone with an acoustic guitar and the band. It took all the pressure off."

A MATTER OF TIME

Alexander grew up in Searcy, drawing and playing music from a young age. His artist mother, Phyllis, encouraged his artistic leanings.

"She was always at home and that was what we did," he says. "Drawing was how she kept me busy in church. We played this game where she would draw something and I would make something out of it. That was a pretty influential thing."

His father, Tom, played music and there were always instruments around the house. When he was 15 or so, Alexander finally picked up a guitar.

"He didn't push it on me, but it was just a matter of time before I got into it," Alexander says of his father's influence. "I taught myself and asked him questions along the way."

He was also exploring his parents' record collection -- "the classic pop stuff" like Roy Orbison, The Beatles and The Everly Brothers.

His first band, the funk rock Screaming Mimes, was formed in high school with Bell, whom he has known since fourth grade, Aaron Brister and David Shedd. Toward the end of his stint at Harding University in Searcy, he and buddy Brad Williams formed Big Silver with Bart Angel, Mike Nelson and Shelby Smith. The Little Rock-based group leans into melodic alt-country and has released four albums -- Big Silver, Love Note, The Afterlife and Tributary.

Alexander teamed with Bell once again for The Easys, which also included John Crowley, Charles Wyrick and fellow Boondog Weinheimer, for two albums of head-bobbing power pop, The Secrets of Loveliness and Blood Capsule.

NEVER GIVING UP

Dig around the liner notes of many Little Rock-based albums and one is sure to find Alexander's name, if not as a contributing musician, then for layout and design. That's his handiwork in the design of Mark Currey's recent debut Tarrant County. He has also collaborated closely with other Max Recording artists and North Little Rock singer-songwriter Adam Faucett on album art.

"I think it's important for a band to have a vision for a record and I want to give everybody an opportunity to put together a professional looking package," he says.

Max owner Burt Taggart has long been a fan of Alexander's work.

"From illustrations to songwriting, he's just super talented," he says. "I was listening to the new record while I was on a bike ride and thought, goodness gracious, he's got songs that are so good, they're like Randy Newman or somebody."

It all comes from a need to create that Alexander is determined to abide.

"I look at it as a refusal to give up," he says with a chuckle. "It's never giving up on that creative urge, but also knowing that you have responsibilities and things that you want out of life that are just as important. It's just something I feel like I need to do and I'm lucky enough to be surrounded by people who are supportive of that."

Style on 08/29/2017

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