The reasoning for the name Chill Spector was twofold. First, it was a satire on the rash of producers and Djs who were using similar punny names based on celebrities. Admittedly, I'm a big fan of Joy Orbison and Com Truise but from my perspective many of the other examples of these kinds of names aren't quite as inspired musically. I do recognize some level of hypocrisy that comes with actually succumbing to this trend in order to parody it.

Second, the phrase “wall of sound” often came up in my descriptions of this sort of sound. Ever since I started jamming in an instrumental band at the end of high school the phrase was tossed around, at least between me and one other friend in that band. As for current day Chill Spector I've often found myself describing our sound as “amorphous blob, wall of sound music” despite the fact that the way I've used the phrase has never really had anything to do with Phil Spector's signature production style.

With this name suddenly all these song titles and themes related the history of Phil Spector's career came to my mind. Instantly I had ideas for crudely photoshopped album covers using pictures of Mr. Spector in court. For years I've been fascinated with stories I've heard about his life and career, like when the Ramones were on the Howard Stern Show and talked about Mr. Spector pulling his gun on people at parties. His mythology almost eclipses his vast body of work for me. Even a framed Rolling Stone cover that hangs in my apartment that I pass every day has the headline “PHIL SPECTOR MURDER MYSTERY” listed above the name of the magazine.

However, around the time I was reviving the Chill Spector project some new pictures of Mr. Spector in prison were surfacing in all the online music publications. He looks terrible and his reported condition was depressing even considering his conviction and God knows what else he might've gotten away with in his life. Suddenly I had a sincere, honest to God change of heart about the project name and especially future album artwork ideas I had. The feeling isn't quite retroactive, mind you. I wouldn't go back and change the previous artwork, song titles or band name for the music we recorded and initially released in 2012. But going forward I wanted a change for the material that we've been recording throughout the summer and fall of 2014.

Fortunately there was a new idea that had already been swimming around in my head. It even shares the word “Chill,” which still amuses me in some ironic way. The new concept that's caught my fascination is the idea of “The Chill Out Room.” Long before I was old enough to attend parties or even enjoy much in the way of live music, underground “raves” (sorry using this vernacular makes me feel like I'm in some anti-drug propaganda PSA or local news expose piece) used to feature “Chill Out Rooms” for people to relax and take a breather from all the high energy and relentless beats. Logically the music in these rooms would be much more ambient and downtempo.

For some reason this just fascinates me. I love dance music. Living near Detroit my whole life I've become an avid listener of techno and house music. Hell, growing up near the southern border of Canton I was much closer to the actual roots of “The Belleville Three” (shouts out to Eddie Fowlkes too!) than anyone within Detroit's city limits. While the city still carries on the tradition of this music, I couldn't imagine any of the current Detroit clubs or party promoters dedicating the resources to hosting a chill out room during a major event. Occasionally some of the better curated party promoters might have an event with a special chill out or ambient set out of the main room but that's about as far as it goes.

Again, I love dance music and I think many producers and Djs can work completely within the confines of dance-floor oriented material and continually innovate time after time but to me as an artist I find it to be limiting. I think there's room for a much more experimental range of sounds to be experienced in these club situations, especially with those kind of sound systems. I know most people are going to these sort of events to dance but people always need to take a chill break, just take a look at all the folks smoking cigarettes and conversing out on the patio of The Works on a busy night. If offered as an alternative to main room shenanigans I think there's a lot of people already attending these parties who are already listening to music that would fit this vibe. Maybe it's just pipe dream on my end but I see potential there.

But back to the point “The Chill Out Room” is the theme for the next series of releases presented by Chill Spector. This series will be comprised of a large cluster of material we recorded during the Summer and Fall of 2014. We have since adopted a new work flow for writing, recording, arranging, editing, overdubbing, mixing and mastering. “The Chill Out Room” series is all the material prior to this new workflow that we wish to present from when we were experimenting with different ways of recording our music, which up to this point has been almost entirely improvised. Therefore this series will be the last material we put out before our music takes on a marked turn and possibly a new alias.

Now not all of the music presented in this series will necessarily be beatless, spacey ambience. We still work with some danceable rhythms from time to time. Even some of our more subdued, chilled out music might not be the most comforting music that I'd expect to hear in a room branded with such a name. It is the spirit of the openness to experimentation and willingness to abandon safe, conventional, instant gratification that ties this music to the theme of “The Chill Out Room.”

We've released music before but we haven't really made any great push to have our music noticed. We haven't even played a show, though I believe that will change in 2015. My greatest hope is that someone might put on one of these albums to sit down and work on some sort of art, craft, hobby, study session or even while working, then zone out and later wonder to themselves “what the hell am I listening to again?”

Special thanks to Joe Le for providing the album art for this entire series!