Will David Duchovny’s debut album, “Hell or Highwater,” fail artistically and commercially, considering most of his time is spent of projects like “Holly Cow” and “Aquarius”? Artistically, “Hell or Highwater,” out May 12, isn’t a failure. It’s actually pretty darn good. Not good for a vanity project, but a legitimately fun and rewarding listen.
“I didn’t try for the 15-year-old or 35-year-old or 80-year-old audience, I tried to make the songs I wanted to make and not aim it at a demographic,” Duchovny said from Los Angeles ahead of a show Wednesday at Cafe 939. “I’d prefer that you liked it, it’s a sincere offering, but I’m not depending on this album to make a living so I didn’t have that kind of pressure on me.”
To help him develop that sound, he hooked up with
producer/keyboardist Colin Lee and the Berklee grads in Boston band
Weather at Q Division Studios in Somerville’s Davis Square.
“The
whole thing came in two phases. First I learned guitar and wrote some
songs to amuse myself and didn’t think much beyond that,” he said. “Then
I met Brad Davidson of ThinkSay Records, and after hearing the songs he
said, ‘Let’s make an album.’ I said, ‘Sure.’ But it was him and Colin
and the band that made this an album. Colin would tell me, ‘This song
needs a bridge.’ I’d ask, ‘What’s a bridge?’ But together we worked out
the arrangements and eventually it all came together.”
If
he flops commercially, he has plenty to go back to. He has already
finished a second novel — it’s called “Bucky (expletive) Dent”
David Duchovny will play his album at Cafe 939 on Wednesday.