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For fans of baroque pop, Graham Czach is right up your alley.  An accomplished musician, composer, upright/electric bassist, vocalist and guitarist, he surrounds himself on his debut album with a truly killer line-up including Kris Myers on drums (Umphrey's McGee), Matt Nelson on keys (Lupe Fiasco, Matthew Santos), and Chris Siebold on guitar (Howard Levy, Kick The Cat). 

“After being a sideman with many other groups for so long, playing everything from funky Afrobeat to jazz bass with the Aaron Koppel Quartet in Chicago,” says Czach, “I’m finally bringing out my true heart and soul on a project that is the culmination of all my influences and years of studying music and working as a musician."

A longtime Mars Volta enthusiast, Czach reached out to legendary album artist Jeff Jordan to create the album cover of Lucid, and Jordan’s painting, “The Widow,” ties in with many of the themes and messages on the album.

“I’ve always had ideas in my songs that explore the whole light vs. dark, good vs. evil, corruption vs. innocence themes,” he adds. “These themes tie into the music, which gets heavy and dark and times, then soars into the light at others."

Those themes cover issues of social consciousness, like tree-hugging (“Gather Round,” an environmental tribute to John Lennon featuring references to the Beatles' chorus from “Across the Universe”), the downward spiral of harmful addictions (a cacophonous “Nightmare”), spiritual discovery (the hypnotic “Reincarnate”) and abortion (“Choice”).  For a hint into his misguided allegiance to the latter, look no further than the chorus ("And the choice was yours to begin with/Who are they to take your rights/Now it's up to the willing and able/Shouting loud and free, pro-choice") and the fact that he has promised to donate a portion of the proceeds from Lucid to Planned Parenthood.

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