On the Syd Barrett song If it’s in you from ‘The Madcap Laughs’, there’s a great moment at the beginning when he makes a hash of hitting the right note and you here him saying in an agitated state: ” …………look you know….. I’ll start again, I’ll start again…its not …. it’s just the fact , you know, of going through it…… I mean if you if we could cut…* It’s great that the producer (Roger Waters here, I think) had the sense to keep this in as it gives an insight on how wired and fraught this recording session must have been.
Chad Hagans certainly doesn’t sound anywhere near as on edge but something in the intensity of his home produced debut EP (Morning Stories) made me think of Syd. This, admittedly tenuous, connection I made when listening to the song Summer’s Child where he sings: “Do you ever feel like nothing is real, Like your body is steel, As if you have no feelings inside your chest, As if your life is broken and it’s time to rest” while a line from the song ‘Someday “Exhale the pain, keep yourself insane” could easily have been written with Syd in mind (but I’m sure wasn’t!).
Chad from New York USA (unlike Syd from Cambridge,UK) is, so far as I can make out, a sorted out individual. This I conclude from the fact that he has the courage and determination to take the plunge and go public with this record. The seven track EP can be downloaded for free from Bandcamp.
The inevitable lo-fi quality gives the recording a slightly muffled quality but his introspective acoustic ballads have a very personal flavour that I warmed to immediately. He sings mainly of relationships in which there is as much anguish as joy but despite this the tone is more honest and reflective than deliberately downbeat. Continue reading
