Jed Whedon, the man behind all the catchy tunes from Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, released his very first album unto the world on August 10. Hopefully you previewed three tracks from the album History of Forgotten Things when I shared them with you a few weeks ago. If you did you would know that the album has no connection to his cheery, catchy hits from Dr.H. (Except for the fact that Felicia Day lends background vocals and violin strings to a number of tracks.) Instead it takes a more personal, grounded journey that covers many bases ranging from traumatic experiences to character-study songs. In a humorous interview led by his brother Joss, he listed Paul Simon, Brian Eno, Jane’s Addiction, and Pink Floyd as influences on the record, categorized the album as “alternative/singer-songwriter/ambient/rock”, explained that the cohesive theme is nostalgia, and talked about the nature of the album title:
“The title comes from a few things — the terrifying feeling that we are forgetting our life as it rolls along. My obsession with all the history that was never documented (though in the digital age, that may be over). As well as the sensation that history can give you. A feeling that is indescribable. That feeling of connection through the ages. It is related to nostalgia. Sometimes, when I pass through a town I have never seen before, I long to not only live there, but to have lived there my whole life; to be nostalgic for it. I get the same feeling from history. I yearn to have lived during all those times. And, of course, in the future.”
Jed plans to continue his music career by releasing some EPs “soon” and another album “in the future.” “But first”, he says, “I am going to start fleshing out some DH2 stuff.” You hear that, Dr.H fans? The sequel really is being worked on! Too bad Joss is busy working on other projects at the moment (ahem–The Avengers).
History of Forgotten Things is available to download at the iTunes Store. So stop reading this and listen to it right now.
