The group’s debut album, DSMA, is out now, and Dave Swanson’s Mystery Airship plays a release party on Dec. 1 at the Happy Dog.
“I had written a bunch of songs, and I wanted to record them but had no real plans to put a band together,” recalls Swanson in a press release.
But when friends such as bassist Jeff Herwick and drummer Scott Pickering, who had both played together with Sawnson in the past, expressed an interest in the music, Swanson thought they could represent a way forward.
The trio began rehearsing the new songs, but the guys needed to find a singer.
“I didn’t want to sing, and we didn’t want to reach back to others we had played with; we wanted a fresh start,” says Swanson. “That’s when I thought of [local singer] Jessica [Horvat]. Jessica was an old friend who I had reconnected with, and when I asked if she’d be interested, she was very excited to join in.”
The band entered locally basedNoise Floor Studio with engineer/producer Mark Klein last spring and recorded around 16 songs, 12 of which are on the debut album. The songs draw from rock, pop, psychedelia, blues, folk and jazz.
“We want the freedom to go wherever the music takes us,” Herwick says. “That could be a three-minute rocker or a 12-minute adventure.”
“We just want to make music,” Swanson emphasizes. “We’re doing this for ourselves and hoping people come along for the ride!”
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This article appears in Nov 8-21, 2023.
