collaborators volume 1 – behind the scenes
this collection of 18 songs was written and produced at a time where i was shifting toward a more effortless style. “maybe don’t try so hard” is sort of a helpful ethos to consider when collaborating with others, or at least it proved helpful this time.
so the lyrics aren’t quite as strictly logical, the performance of each instrument is not edited as thorougly, and i didn’t get most songs professionally mixed or mastered. i did put most of the professionally mixed songs at the top of the album, maybe to put my best foot forward.
i also noticed, when i was listening to final mixes of the album, that it was more of an a la carte experience than an 18 course meal. i put screenshots of the videos on the cover of the album so people could find the songs they had liked during a performance of mine and skip right to it.
below i’m just gonna list anything interesting about each song, as well as a picture and link to the work of anyone who collaborated with me on the song. when i hear songs, i sometimes want to know what the person looks like who sings it, etc. so i’ve compiled that info
Kasey Foster
Rollin Weary
this song has probably received the most attention of anything i’ve written, probably cuz of the music video that took 6 months locked in my studio. it stars my lovely wife Kasey Foster and is my first foray into 3D video. the video is about making a music video, so it does really well with music and video nerds. the song was mixed by my go-to and good friend Rollin Weary
Leslie Beukelman
Matt Rezetko
Rollin Weary
at the time of this writing, i’m probably only about halfway through the video. it’s proving to take a long time and is making me dive even deeper into 3D, thanks to help from a friend Thorne Brandt. features Leslie Beukelman on vocals and Matt Rezetko on percussion, mixed by Rollin Weary. the lyrics don’t mean much to me until the end, they start talking about a “silken ladder.” reminds me of a corporate job that will lure you in but then you’re stuck
Sean O’Keefe
Matt Walker
Kasey Foster
Elvis Otto
Joe Re
i did a whole email series in the leadup to the release of this music video, it goes into the meaning of the song and how i made the video. if you want to see those emails, send me a message at charlie@charlieotto.com. basically it deals with the mystery of my possible childhood trauma and how that affects my relationship with my daughter, Elvis Otto. she is in the music video, it was filmed by my wife Kasey Foster. Keys by Joe Re, drums by Matt Walker, mixed by another great engineer, Sean OKeefe. Joe played in my Talking Heads tribute This Must be the Band for a while, and Sean mixed a few songs on my album Things to Throw Off a Cliff.
Kasey Foster
i sorta cheated adding this to an album of collaborations, i got some help from Kasey Foster with filming it as usual, and she always gives me feedback and inspiration on everything i do, so technically it counts. i just like the song, i like performing it and i like the chords. and i really love the intro i made for live performance, which uncovered the line, “there’s always some way to take advantage of a situation, but you can’t take respect.”
PHENOM
Leslie Beukelman
Matt Rezetko
my Talking Heads tribute This Must be the Band doesn’t play much anymore, but once a year we do a fund-and-awareness-raiser for something special. in March 2020, we were scheduled to do a fundraiser to end money bond in Illinois, and the show had a very abolitionist theme, with banners displaying “FREE THEM ALL.” the idea being that, we have far too many people in jail, away from their families, when they actually need a better economic situation and a whole lot more respect. to make sure i was coming correct with this message, i enlisted the help of Anthony Moseley and Marcus Robinson of Collaboraction. they hooked me up with PHENOM, who was set to open up for This Must be the Band. unfortunately the pandemic hit and the show was postponed a couple times, but PHENOM agreed to rap on this tune, all about how important family can be to anyone having trouble. the hook was sung by Leslie Beukelman and drums by Matt Rezetko.
Matt Walker
Kasey Foster
Rollin Weary
when i started making this song, i thought it was so promising, i decided to drop everything i was doing and get straight to finishing it. unfortunately that didn’t happen and it still took 4 years of sitting on it, before i sent it over to Rollin Weary to finish. it has Matt Walker on drums, and i plan on making a small music video with an amazingly tiny puppet suit Kasey Foster picked up while being in a magic show with Sean Masterson. my idea right now is that Kasey is some sort of pastor-type person and she’s giving a sermon, the theme playing around with how the lyrics juxtapose between “i’ve been running my whole life” and “i’ll be running my own life.”
Leslie Hunt
Matt Rezetko
this one is probably what i consider the coolest song i’ve written, and i love how Leslie Hunt’s vocals sound on it, along with Matt Rezetko on drums. i wasn’t writing the lyrics about anyone in particular, but the phrase, “the only information that could help you, would never make it past your firewall” could, at one time or another, apply to every human i have ever met, including myself.
Vince Naples
this one features a fun new video program my friend and mentor Vince Naples aka DRMBT made called Hive. it allowed me for the first time to PLAY the visuals instead of program them, and i’ve been hooked and working on that process ever since, with Vince’s help. the song is loosely based on my childhood family, where several people have decided not to talk to each other, but i’m hoping that the relationships can start up again, as long as people leave the locks off their doors, so to speak.
this one truly cheated by getting on this album, because i didn’t collaborate with anyone at all to make it. the video will most likely require some help from Vince Naples, but hasn’t really happened yet, so he doesn’t even deserve a link on his name yet. the main rhythm is made by singing some sort of drum part with my mouth and then severely demolishing the sound with lots of effects.
Matt Rezetko
i’m extremely proud of this one. during the first 6 weeks of the pandemic, my wife, child, and I retreated to my in-laws farm near Fort Wayne, Indiana. we thought it would be safer out there, but Fort Wayne turned out to be quite a hot spot, because no one cared at all about covid. anyways, i got a folder of cell-phone-recorded drum noodling from Matt Rezetko, and made a song out of one of them. in it, you can hear Matt give up halfway through and claim that he “can’t keep up” (with his own drumming, i guess). all his jabbering inspired me, so the song ended up being all about his silly apologies, but generated some pretty killer lines, like “as long as my feet connect to my legs, i’ll be reaching.”
Catho.
this one is pre-pandemic. i saw Nasty Snacks playing while i was working at Martyrs’ in Chicago and the singer, Catho. sounded great, so i asked her to come over and record this one. i’m not sure if this was meant to be a good thing or not, but at the end of the process, she said something like “i’ve never heard myself sound like that.” the lyrics are about having good posture, something i’ve been actively working on for maybe 15 years now. very difficult but rewarding, and i thank Kalyan Pathak for taking an interest in my wrist injuries and suggesting Egoscue Method.
Joe Re
i asked Mungion keyboardist Joe Re to send me any old riff and i’d work it up into a song. here is the original recording he sent. i’d say it’s pretty different than the final product. i sent it to him afterwards and i think he just said, “i love it,” and that was the end of the collab. he played in my Talking Heads tribute This Must be the Band for a couple tours, and he’s just one of those guys that i will love my entire life, no matter if i never see him again. he also fixes my synths when they break. when it was time to make a video for the live performance of this song, i copped a couple photos taken by Zak Stone that curiously included a banana, then i distorted the images to make Joe look like a gorilla with veins pumping blood at a fantastic speed.
my boy elroy
My Boy Elroy is known for his beatboxing and DJ skills, but not as many people know that he is a killer drummer, and he played drums on this track. although i don’t quite know where the verse lyrics came from, the song ended up being somewhat pertinent to my situation, especially the final line, “burn the rest, cuz you can’t take this chain up off your neck, it fits you too well.” it refers to my weed habit and my attempts to quit, both states of mind being somewhat chronic for me. at the time of this writing, the chain has been lifted up off my neck, but i’m not super-confident i won’t place it back on at some time in the future, because weed does fit me pretty well.
Hildary Taylor
Elvis Otto
i played a show at Reggie’s on south side chicago, and a man was there with his son. they liked what i did, and afterwards i took a picture with them and the man said he was a rapper and we should collab, so we did. his name is Hildary Taylor, he’s a rapper/comedian/trucker on the south side, and my daugher Elvis helped film and record him. we have yet to make a video but we have some good green screen footage to work with. his rap came first, and the verses and choruses came after. i jumped off some phrases that he used but i dont think we’re exactly singing about the same thing, which is totally fine, as far as i’m concerned.
16. across the night
Ryan Chamlin
Ryan Chamlin is a keyboardist and soundsmith that has played with my 6 piece electronic band DJ noDJ, and we remotely collaborated on this song in 2022. the song was also featured in my promotional video for a show at Chop Shop. i can’t say the lyrics have any real significance for me, maybe someone else can fill that in for themselves.
Nate Urbansky
another song written acoustically during the pandemic, while at my in-laws farm near Fort Wayne, Indiana. the world was basically falling apart on multiple fronts, and i felt paralyzed to do anything about it, instead sitting in front of a giant TV screen and watching garbage. drums added by my great friend and serial collaborator Nate Urbansky. we have a band together called Teen Beat.
Emma Murdock
the US has recently been coming to grips more and more with its white supremacist system, both historical and current, and i fully agree that must be done, both in the dissemination of knowledge and political actions to make reparations. even more rampant and unacknowledged, however, is human supremacy. i think the idea that humans are the only ones that matter is a huge problem that must be addressed if are to continue to have a place to live, so i wrote a short story that imagined a world where trees were in charge and acted as thoughtlessly as i feel humans do. i was proud, but never having wrote a short story, i didn’t really have an outlet for it, so left it in my email for a year or so. enter my Canadian penpal Emma Murdock, an amazing artist who sometimes sends over fan art like this <photo>- then I set it to a tune I wrote, and voila, a song and slide show. currently it is making the rounds on fb as a conversation starter.