By Carla Hay
Billboard
NEW YORK — If there’s anything rock ‘n’ roll history has taught us, it’s that regardless of whether a duo or group has a bitter breakup or just slowly fades away, we can expect the inevitable: a reunion.
With the release next month of the album “Two Against Nature,” Steely Dan founders Donald Fagen and Walter Becker add themselves to the reunion list. The act that successfully fused rock and jazz to score platinum hits in the ’70s and early ’80s is returning with its first studio album in nearly 20 years.
The set will be released worldwide on Giant Records, with distribution outside North America on Feb. 28 via BMG. Distribution in the U.S. and Canada is Feb. 29 via Warner Bros./Reprise.
“After touring as Steely Dan for a couple of seasons, we were hungry to have new songs to play on tour, so the next logical step was to do a new Steely Dan album,” says Becker.
Fagen adds wryly, “And we basically came up with enough songs to fill an album.”
The nine-song collection features the classic Steely Dan sound infused with contemporary music sensibilities. The album features Becker primarily on bass and guitar and lead singer Fagen as chief keyboardist, backed by various studio musicians.
“We recorded the album pretty much nonstop,” says Becker. “My fear going into this [was] that there would be a blasé attitude after not having done anything like this in 20 years, but that wasn’t the case. We ended up doing a lot of the overdubs ourselves, and we really became more self-contained than we had in the past.”
In the ’70s, Becker and Fagen had a reputation for being studio gurus who disliked touring. But according to Becker, their attitude toward touring has changed dramatically.
“When Steely Dan started touring again in 1993, we discovered to our great surprise that we had a lot of fun touring,” he says. “Everything was different. We had a great band, a great sound, and the logistics of touring had been perfected in every way to a much higher degree than in the ’70s. It was just satisfying musically and more livable. And we were making money, as opposed to losing money, like we did back then.”
When it came to getting a new record deal, New York-based Fagen and Becker say the decision to sign with Giant was greatly influenced by the fact that Giant president Irving Azoff used to be their manager in the ’70s.
“He forced us to sign with Giant,” jokes Fagen. “But seriously, Irving made us an offer we couldn’t refuse.” Becker adds, “He made sure we’d be happy at Giant.”
But the question remains: Will today’s music buyers embrace Steely Dan as they did in the ’70s and early ’80s?
Fagen admits, “I hope we have a massive audience, but it’s a very different musical landscape than when we last put out an album. We’re also not as pretty as we used to be.”
Becker adds: “On the plus side, there’s a lot of range out there. On the negative side, it seems like the business is so fragmented and rigid in some ways that it’s harder for music that’s not obvious to get a chance. We’ve been told that our music doesn’t fit with a certain demographic. I don’t necessarily agree with the idea that you have to be a certain age to appreciate our music.”
The marketing of “Two Against Nature” will be a multifaceted campaign with a large push toward print-media coverage, retail, and the Internet. An Internet contest has been devised, wherein the winner will win a trip to see Steely Dan’s opening-night concert of the new tour.
The band will embark on a U.S. amphitheater and arena tour in May, with dates to be nnounced. In addition, Steely Dan plans to tour Europe and Japan this fall. Other plans for Steely Dan include a European promotional tour in March.
Giant is taking a two-pronged approach in targeting U.S. radio by releasing two first singles from the album: “Cousin Dupree” has been serviced to triple-A and rock radio, while “What A Shame” has been released to jazz and jazz/AC stations.
Becker says Steely Dan has no plans to do videos for any of the singles, but “we may film some live performances to be released later on video.” Steely Dan is planning several TV appearances to promote the album, including a PBS “In The Spotlight” special, which will air in March.
In February, Steely Dan will tape a VH1 “Storytellers” episode, tentatively slated to premiere in April.
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