If you’ve never met Tony Saxon, known as the jack of all trades in music circles, you’d probably think to yourself this guy needs his own reality show. In reality part of that chaotic unique quality comes from Saxon’s bouts with Bipoar disorder. The artist throughout the years has done it all musically going from being in 3 piece garage rock outfits to 5 piece neo soul bands to being a one man show with delay pedals and enough gear to play an arena set. However nowadays Saxon has resorted to tracking every instrument himself except for the occasional guest drummer. Saxon himself is at times not sure if his condition aids or hinders his art.
Saxon’s newest album explores themes and vibes from the 60’s and 70’s an era he’s extremely fond of. In his own words Saxon says, “my entire life revolves around early African-American music” paying homage and tribute to everyone from Little Richard and James Brown to lesser know heroes of Soul like Jackie Shane. Saxon says of his newest video that it has a Chaotic Andre 3000 vibe and is meant to feel similar to Outkast’s “Hey Ya”. This his 8th album feels like the perfect blend of vintage and modern aesthetics.
Saxon is the son of a notable lounge singer of the same name, once thought to be the person Andy Kaufman based his Tony Clifton character on. As a child Saxon was around music constantly but it wasn’t until many years later he could formulate what he was hearing in his head and get it down on tape. With this newest effort the mission was simple, to do as much himself as possible and enlist the help of people who understood exactly what he was going for like Grammy Award Winning Mastering Engineer Brian Chirlo. In recording sessions Saxon had pictures of Brian Wilson and Phil Spector taped to the studio walls and his mantra became “Harmonize like Wilson, Record it like Spector”. Throughout the process Saxon was recording 14 hours a day for months on end. He was afforded that luxury after a stint working for another famous bi-polar rap artist as well as his hobby of collecting and selling rare 7” vinyl. But that my friends is another odd story for another day.
The newest album ‘A Few Cogs Short Of A Clock” has everything from covers of Jimmy Nelson’s 1960 Kent Record’s release “I Sat And Cried” to a cover of Hanna Barbara’s The Banana Splits “I’m Gonna Find A Cave”. On top of this Saxon has his own original soul and garage rock tracks interspersed throughout. You may ask how does Saxon find all of this cool influential stuff to cover? Well he says he’s learned from the best, DJ’s and Collectors like Ireland’s Bill Kealy (For Dancers Only Rhythm and Blues Club) and MJ Parry (Pow Wow Club) of England. MJ and Bill have been on the R&B and Soul scene since the days of mod were still fresh and Northern Soul clubs were just closing. This story is a fascinating one and it’s just getting started. As Saxon is delivering his second LP just months from his last LP ‘Thirst And Howl’, he’s already got plans in place for the next one. For you fine folks we bring you today from Tony Saxon ‘A Few Cogs Short Of A Clock’ the single “This Leopard Don’t Change His Spots”.
