PATTERN-SEEKING ANIMALS is the brand new group featuring the talents of current & former Spock’s Beard members Ted Leonard, Jimmy Keegan & Dave Meros as well as long-time contributing songwriter-producer John Boegehold. The band will release their self-titled debut album in a weeks time on July 5th, 2019.
Today sees the launch of a brand new track titled ‘The Same Mistakes Again’, and you can listen to it now here:
John Boegehold comments: “Dave and I wrote this a while back from the viewpoint of a guy feeling sorry for his lot in life. I love the bass tone he came up with and Ted’s guitar tone is classic 70s. Is voodoo-swamp prog a genre?”
They recently lanched a play-through video courtesy of Ted Leonard for their last single ‘No One Ever Died and Made Me King’. Watch it here: https://youtu.be/QjCN1-qiUIE
The album has already been receiving great reviews, find a few of them below:
“shiny and soulful but spiky symphonic prog” – Prog Magazine
“a must-have for any respectable music collection”– Power of Prog
“a strong album with top-notch performances from some of the best players in the prog world” – Sonic Perspectives
“this album is a must-have.” – Progressive Music Planet
Originally a vehicle for a few tracks John had been working on in early 2018, he quickly came up with enough music to work towards producing an album. With that in mind, he enlisted the talents of Jimmy Keegan (drums & vocals), Ted Leonard (vocals & guitar) & Dave Meros (bass), with Boegehold handling all the synths. He adds: “Besides live strings on a few songs and a female backing vocalist on another, it was all done between the four of us with Dave and Ted ending up as co-writers on some of the material.”
With the band obviously being closely associated with Spock’s Beard, John was conscious of exploring different avenues with Pattern-Seeking Animals, whether it was song structures, vocal arrangements, synth sounds or emotional textures. “Pattern-Seeking Animals was a clean slate so I found myself drawing on a few different musical influences and using some contemporary production ideas and sounds that I probably wouldn’t use with SB for various reasons.”
As John notes, as the project came together it quickly became apparent that they would want to take this material out live: “Originally it was intended to be a recording project but as it was coming together we started talking seriously about doing it as a live band. Because of the complexity of a lot of the material, it’ll require an additional musician or two to pull it off live. The plan is to tour as much as possible and to come out with a new album at least once a year. In fact, work on the second album is already well underway.”
PATTERN-SEEKING ANIMALS is the brand new group featuring the talents of current & former Spock’s Beard members Ted Leonard, Jimmy Keegan & Dave Meros as well as long-time contributing songwriter-producer John Boegehold. The band will release their self-titled debut album on July 5th, 2019.
Today they launch a play-through video courtesy of Ted Leonard for their latest single ‘No One Ever Died and Made Me King’.
John Boegehold comments: “Dave and I wrote this a while back from the viewpoint of a guy feeling sorry for his lot in life. I love the bass tone he came up with and Ted’s guitar tone is classic 70s. Is voodoo-swamp prog a genre?”
The album has already been receiving great reviews, find a few of them below:
“shiny and soulful but spiky symphonic prog” – Prog Magazine
“a must-have for any respectable music collection”– Power of Prog
“a strong album with top-notch performances from some of the best players in the prog world” – Sonic Perspectives
“this album is a must-have.” – Progressive Music Planet
Originally a vehicle for a few tracks John had been working on in early 2018, he quickly came up with enough music to work towards producing an album. With that in mind, he enlisted the talents of Jimmy Keegan (drums & vocals), Ted Leonard (vocals & guitar) & Dave Meros (bass), with Boegehold handling all the synths. He adds: “Besides live strings on a few songs and a female backing vocalist on another, it was all done between the four of us with Dave and Ted ending up as co-writers on some of the material.”
With the band obviously being closely associated with Spock’s Beard, John was conscious of exploring different avenues with Pattern-Seeking Animals, whether it was song structures, vocal arrangements, synth sounds or emotional textures. “Pattern-Seeking Animals was a clean slate so I found myself drawing on a few different musical influences and using some contemporary production ideas and sounds that I probably wouldn’t use with SB for various reasons.”
The album will be released on limited CD digipak, gatefold 2LP + CD & as digital album. Pre-order now here: www.insideoutmusicshop.com
As John notes, as the project came together it quickly became apparent that they would want to take this material out live: “Originally it was intended to be a recording project but as it was coming together we started talking seriously about doing it as a live band. Because of the complexity of a lot of the material, it’ll require an additional musician or two to pull it off live. The plan is to tour as much as possible and to come out with a new album at least once a year. In fact, work on the second album is already well under way.”
Stay tuned for a first taste of music from Pattern-Seeking Animals in the coming weeks!
PATTERN-SEEKING ANIMALS is the brand new group featuring the talents of current & former Spock’s Beard members Ted Leonard, Jimmy Keegan & Dave Meros as well as long-time contributing songwriter-producer John Boegehold. The band will release their self-titled debut album on July 5th, 2019.
Today they launch the second track taken from the album. Watch the video for “No One Ever Died and Made Me King” here:
ohn Boegehold comments: “Dave and I wrote this a while back from the viewpoint of a guy feeling sorry for his lot in life. I love the bass tone he came up with and Ted’s guitar tone is classic 70s. Is voodoo-swamp prog a genre?”
Of the musical direction, Boegehold comments: “My goal was to produce music that’s progressive and intricate while keeping things immediate and melodic. Whether a song is four minutes or ten minutes long, I didn’t want more than a few bars go by without some kind of instrumental or vocal hook.”Originally a vehicle for a few tracks John had been working on in early 2018, he quickly came up with enough music to work towards producing an album. With that in mind, he enlisted the talents of Jimmy Keegan (drums & vocals), Ted Leonard (vocals & guitar) & Dave Meros (bass), with Boegehold handling all the synths. He adds: “Besides live strings on a few songs and a female backing vocalist on another, it was all done between the four of us with Dave and Ted ending up as co-writers on some of the material.”
With the band obviously being closely associated with Spock’s Beard, John was conscious of exploring different avenues with Pattern-Seeking Animals, whether it was song structures, vocal arrangements, synth sounds or emotional textures. “Pattern-Seeking Animals was a clean slate so I found myself drawing on a few different musical influences and using some contemporary production ideas and sounds that I probably wouldn’t use with SB for various reasons.”
The album will be released on limited CD digipak, gatefold 2LP + CD & as digital album. Pre-order now here: www.insideoutmusicshop.com
As John notes, as the project came together it quickly became apparent that they would want to take this material out live: “Originally it was intended to be a recording project but as it was coming together we started talking seriously about doing it as a live band. Because of the complexity of a lot of the material, it’ll require an additional musician or two to pull it off live. The plan is to tour as much as possible and to come out with a new album at least once a year. In fact, work on the second album is already well under way.”
Stay tuned for a first taste of music from Pattern-Seeking Animals in the coming weeks!
I have loved Art-Rock and what many now call Prog or Progressive Rock since the late ’60s. I can still recall the day and place I discovered my first Art-rock band it was the summer of 69 I was listening to a pocket-sized AM radio while visiting relatives when I heard a song called White Bird by San Fransico based band “Its a Beautiful Day”.
Soon I would discover many other Art, Prog or Psychedelic bands such as Pink Floyd, The Moody Blues, Traffic, Procol Harum and Jethro Tull, by the ’70s it was Electric Light Orchestra, Barclay James Harvest, Supertramp, Manfred Mann’s Earth Band and in the 80s I was into all styles of music from The Art of Noise,Alan Parsons Project, Tears For Fears, Kansas, Marillion, IQ, It Bites and the story continues today. Yes, I was a fan of the staple bands: Yes, Rush, Genesis, however, I seemed to have gravitated to and built a strong love for all things Melodic.
Which leads me to Pattern-Seeking Animals a fantastic new US melodic Art-rock band formed in 2018 by John Boegehold songwriter and guest musician on many Spock’s Beard albums. Starting with Feel Euphoria (2003) and including Octane (2005) Spock’s Beard (2006) and finally X (2010). Spock’s Beard not only is one of the most important US prog bands, but also one of my favorites. Pattern-Seeking Animals is rounded out by Ted Leonard, Jimmy Keegan & Dave Meros all of whom have been involved with Spock’s Beard or still are.
Boegehold comments: “My goal was to produce music that’s progressive and intricate while keeping things immediate and melodic. Whether a song is four minutes or ten minutes long, I didn’t want more than a few bars go by without some kind of instrumental or vocal hook.”
So what’s in a name? According to my wife and a google search “Humans are pattern-seeking animals and we are adept at finding patterns whether they exist or not” I have to say this seems to fit the debut very well indeed.
I will not give you a play by play of each track, but I can tell you there are no fillers on this album, the album is filled with brilliant fretwork and tasty hooks, stunning Vocals & Harmonies that remind me of the heyday of Styx, ELO as well as Flying Colors, and Spock’s Beard, the album is chalk full of memorable lyrics that you will want to sing along with: and if that’s not enough the album is rounded out by lush and majestic keyboards and a top-notch rhythm section.
As I said before, there are no fillers on this album but there a few tracks that really sealed the deal for me like; Orphans Of The Universe, These Are My Things, No One Ever Died And Made Me King, or We Write Ghost Stories
1 – No Burden Left to Carry (9:38) 2 – The Same Mistakes Again (5:10) 3 – Orphans of the Universe (10:28) 4 – No One Ever Died and Made Me King (3:54) 5 – Fall Away (4:47) 6 – These Are My Things (4:52) 7 – We Write the Ghost Stories (3:22) 8 – No Land’s Man (5:35) 9 – Stars Along the Way (10:20)
Line-up: John Boegehold (synths, keyboards) Ted Leonard (vocals & guitar) Dave Meros (bass) Jimmy Keegan (drums & vocals)
I listen to a lot of music nowadays so its sensory overload, that said… it’s refreshing when something comes across the desk that makes me go OMG what is this? P-SA is a must-have for any respectable music collection. ★★★★★ Un-qualified-Kritic
PATTERN-SEEKING ANIMALS is the brand new group featuring the talents of current & former Spock’s Beard members Ted Leonard, Jimmy Keegan & Dave Meros as well as long-time contributing songwriter-producer John Boegehold. The band recently signed to InsideOutMusic for the release of their self-titled debut album on July 5th, 2019.
Today they launch the first single from the album, and you can stream / download ‘No Burden Left To Carry’, as well as pre-order the self-titled album here: https://patternseekinganimals.lnk.to/PatternSeekingAnimalsOf the musical direction, Boegehold comments: “My goal was to produce music that’s progressive and intricate while keeping things immediate and melodic. Whether a song is four minutes or ten minutes long, I didn’t want more than a few bars go by without some kind of instrumental or vocal hook.”
Originally a vehicle for a few tracks John had been working on in early 2018, he quickly came up with enough music to work towards producing an album. With that in mind, he enlisted the talents of Jimmy Keegan (drums & vocals), Ted Leonard (vocals & guitar) & Dave Meros (bass), with Boegehold handling all the synths. He adds: “Besides live strings on a few songs and a female backing vocalist on another, it was all done between the four of us with Dave and Ted ending up as co-writers on some of the material.”
With the band obviously being closely associated with Spock’s Beard, John was conscious of exploring different avenues with Pattern-Seeking Animals, whether it was song structures, vocal arrangements, synth sounds or emotional textures. “Pattern-Seeking Animals was a clean slate so I found myself drawing on a few different musical influences and using some contemporary production ideas and sounds that I probably wouldn’t use with SB for various reasons.”
The album will be released on limited CD digipak, gatefold 2LP + CD & as digital album.
As John notes, as the project came together it quickly became apparent that they would want to take this material out live: “Originally it was intended to be a recording project but as it was coming together we started talking seriously about doing it as a live band. Because of the complexity of a lot of the material, it’ll require an additional musician or two to pull it off live. The plan is to tour as much as possible and to come out with a new album at least once a year. In fact, work on the second album is already well under way.”
Stay tuned for a first taste of music from Pattern-Seeking Animals in the coming weeks!
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