Separation Rock (Vinyl)

Jack Ladder has been waiting his whole life to make this record.

From humble beginnings in a rural 8 track studio to inner city rock’n roll hell mouths – he has done it all ways. His last two records are testament to his high risk taking and bi-polarity as he reverse spun from the densely orchestrated chamber goth of Hijack! to the made for stadium, ode to Depeche Mode Tall Pop Syndrome.

It has been a long journey to get to his L.A Turnaround.

Songs years in the making boiled down to 4 days at historical Valentine Studios in North Hollywood with producer Zach Dawes (Lana Del Ray, Sharon Van Etten). Zach heard the demos through mutual friend Alex Cameron – and on the strength of the songs assembled the ‘reckoning crew of Jay Bellerose (Elton John, Bonnie Raitt) on drums, Tyler Parkford (Arctic Monkeys, Sparks) on keys and Zach himself on bass, a long-term affiliate of producer T-Bone Burnett. Cult legend Luke Temple mysteriously showed up and picked some guitar while Sharon Van Etten contributed vocals to the opening song ‘Missing’. Meanwhile in Nashville, legend Russ Pahl was putting down the outer space pedal steel you hear on ‘Radiation’.

The sessions then made their way into the ears of the great Tchad Blake who thought it sounded like “good music” and agreed to mix it into the state you hear today. The opportunity for Tchad to mix the record feels preordained for two reasons: Firstly, he mixed Los Lobos’s La Bamba which was Ladder’s childhood introduction to rock’n roll and secondly Tchad worked on Richard Thompson’s ‘Feels So Good’ from the 1991 album Rumour & Sigh which is referenced in the final song ‘When We First Met’.