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Date: 04-24-2003;
Publication: The Toronto Star;
Author: not listed

Blinker The Star back to solo act

For all the Canadian bands scooping up international recording contracts at a furious rate these days, we present the saga of Jordan Zadorozny as a cautionary tale.

From the moment A&M Records agreed to release a collection of lo- fi demos cooked up by a 22-year-old kid in a Pembroke, Ont. basement as Blinker The Star's eponymous debut album in 1995, Zadorozny has been perennially "on the verge." Three albums, two major labels, a move to Los Angeles and one much-publicized writing session with Courtney Love later, though, the affable musical multitasker is back in Pembroke with his cat, sans record deal, and doing the one-man-band thing in his own studio once again. That is nevertheless precisely where he' d like to be because, after three years of vainly trying to convince DreamWorks Records to let him follow up Blinker's underrated 1999 symphonic-pop opus, August Everywhere, he's actually able to make music again.

"Over the course of two years, I ended up demoing, like, 70 songs and sending them to DreamWorks as I wrote and recorded them," Zadorozny recalls. "I was basically never able to get a green light from them to make a record ... They didn't hear a single or whatever in all the songs that I gave them, which I guess is a pretty typical situation. I tried not to take it personally, which was pretty hard. My life was at a standstill."

Sensing he would soon be with neither a record deal nor a record and broke, to boot, he finally opted out of his contract with DreamWorks last year. Having already established himself as a producer, Zadorozny - who recently manned the boards and the drumkit for Sam Roberts' hit The Inhuman Condition EP - reinvested what money he got out of the deal in a spacious studio back in Pembroke where he's since taken on projects for such friends as ex-Hole/Smashing Pumpkins bassist Melissa Auf Der Maur, Tool's Paul D'Amour, and Joydrop's Tara Slone.

Over the winter, Zadorozny also completed a new Blinker the Star record, using the same solo modus operandi that birthed Blinker The Star in '95, "except with a lot more knowledge of how to record and produce albums" and the clout to call in Fleetwood Mac's Lindsay Buckingham to sing on one track. The resulting album, entitled Still In Rome, is closer in tone to the first couple of Blinker records, too, opting for loud guitars, big, AM-radio choruses and a Cheap Trick-esque sense of fun rather than the piano- and string-streaked pyschedelic pop of August Everywhere. A new live band has also rolled into action, featuring former Joydrop drummer Tony Rabalano and old Pembroke buddies Pete Frolander and Paul Leach on bass and guitar, respectively.

"I'm always excited to make music, and it was just frustrating to not be able to do that," says Zadorozny. "So I just took matters into my own hands ... You think of Rufus Wainwright, you think of Elliott Smith, you think of Eels - those guys make whatever record they want. But I guess someone had to go ... It was definitely a different mindset starting the record because, ultimately, if I'm gonna make my own record with my own money, I'd better like it. I'm not going to write a tune that I think DreamWorks might like because they want something that sounds like the Goo Goo Dolls."