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\u201cWe saw an opportunity to do something positive and something healthy,\u201d said Walden. \u201cIt\u2019s a chance to express ourselves \u2013 what we\u2019re feeling, what we\u2019re going through, what the world is going through.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Went and Walden play in a rock band called Signal 2 Noise. Went is the guitarist, Walden the singer. Went writes the music, and Walden, a designer at luxury Christmas ornament brand Christopher Radko, pens the lyrics. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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They reached out to musician friends who also were frustrated with their inability to play gigs and were soon joined by Peter J. Blume, a horn player from Valhalla, and Brian Doherty, a drummer from Thornwood. A Mount Pleasant police officer, Blume plays in rock band Kick Start Charlie and German folk band The Spitzbuam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All four are fathers in their fifties.\u00a0Typical of the times, each of the four worked together remotely.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cPhil and Joe are probably the best songwriting team I\u2019ve ever worked with,\u201d Blume said. \u201cThey complement each other very, very well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Doherty spent years touring with They Might Be Giants before becoming a teacher at a Yonkers public school, and plays with Mount Pleasant cover band Heard Immunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAny time I\u2019m considering a project, the songs have to be there,\u201d Doherty said. \u201cJoe and Phil have this gift of carving out these great songs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201c4 Corners of a Circle\u201d began with a lone track. Fittingly called \u201cSocial Distance,” it\u2019s about looking forward to the days when friends come over for dinner parties or barbecues. The men penned a couple more songs; then a legit home-recording setup was a prerequisite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n More followed. \u201cCloser\u201d plays with the theme of emotional isolation amidst COVID. \u201cHow Do You Love Me (When I\u2019m Down)\u201d wonders how a spouse handles a partner dragged down by these challenging times. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The songs started to add up. \u201cTwo songs, three songs, four,\u201d said Walden. \u201cBefore we knew it we had an album.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n W2 next focused on videos. In keeping with the hometown vibe of the band, W2 shot videos for a few of the songs in Westchester locales, including downtown White Plains and Kensico Dam. Went, an assistant director at Montessori Children\u2019s Room in Armonk, is also a freelance photographer and videographer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For the video for \u201cSocial Distance,\u201d they filmed on the vacant streets of White Plains on an early Sunday morning in 2020. \u201cWe wanted to capture that feeling of the streets being completely dead,\u201d said Went.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Band members played the finished video for their friend Brian Mahon, who owns Hudson Grille on Mamaroneck Avenue. Mahon asked if he could share it with White Plains Mayor Thomas Roach as he dined in the restaurant. As a result, the White Plains Business Improvement District deployed the video for marketing purposes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cTheir song captures a hopefulness in a difficult time and is a testament to the resilience of not only our residents, but our city as well,\u201d said Roach at the time.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n The video for \u201cHow Do You Love Me (When I\u2019m Down)\u201d was shot at Hudson Grille, and \u201cCloser\u201d at Kensico Dam. All are on YouTube. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201c4 Corners of a Circle\u201d can be streamed on the major music platforms, including Spotify, and the band\u2019s website, W2.hearnow.com. There\u2019s a limited number of CDs, which will be sold in select Westchester shops, including Stone Gate Wine & Spirits in Valhalla, with proceeds helping local charities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The musicians appreciated that, without deadlines, they could take their time getting each song as close to perfect as possible. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t overwhelming,\u201d said Went, who produced the album. \u201cIt was just one at a time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Band members describe the music as classic rock with hook-oriented pop sensibility; Bon Jovi, Journey and U2 are cited as influences. A handful of other area musicians also appear on the album.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Went and Walden said there is no doubt their\u00a0hired hands gave their songs greater dimension. Blume plays trumpet, trombone, flugelhorn and cornet. His horns give the tracks a James Bond feel, said Walden, while Went mentioned how Blume provides a \u201ccounter-melody\u201d in the tunes. \u201cThere\u2019s another whole song within the song,\u201d Went said. \u201cThe listener is more engaged now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Went and Walden note drummer Doherty\u2019s wide range of styles, be it swing, jazz or rock. \u201cAll these textures just make each piece so much more interesting to listen to,\u201d said Walden. <\/p>\n\n\n\n None of the band members, all fathers in their 50s, has any illusion about the album catapulting them to rock-star status. But that\u2019s not the point of it. \u201cIt\u2019s us doing something we love to do and wanting to share it,\u201d said Walden. \u201cIt\u2019s a way for us to deal with what\u2019s going on in the world\u2013to take all that stress and do something positive with it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Michael MaloneFor The Journal News – Published Feb. 11, 2022<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The pandemic has been brutal for those in the performing arts, whether they\u2019re stage actors, comedians or rock musicians. Four Westchester fathers addressed the grim setting of the COVID-19 era and spun it into something positive \u2013 a rock album. The album, “4 Corners of a Circle,”\u00a0comes from the band W2, short for the last […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":5772,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,259],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peterjblume.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5771"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peterjblume.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peterjblume.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterjblume.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterjblume.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5771"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterjblume.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5771\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterjblume.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peterjblume.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterjblume.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterjblume.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.peterjblume.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/W2-Brian-Doherty.jpg\")
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