Swell



Eric Winzenried - Vox

Lloyd Stuart Casson - Guitars, Bass

Carl West - Bass

Paul Sandberg - Keys

Sebastian Sheehan - Drums and Percussion

  
"Man I feel different now!" Eric Winzenried exclaims from the Hollywood Drunks albums' title track "SWELL".  It's a feeling that we all experience at various stages in our lives. We wake up and suddenly everything has changed but we're not sure how or why. You're just not the same person. "SWELL" is a coming of age album for a new adulthood. In Winzenried's case, it's one that has been severely delayed.

Once again combining an eclectic mix of musical styles, The Hollywood Drunks second album is a free for all of pop, rock, reggae, hip hop, and alternative.   And lyrically, whether he's crooning or flowing, his style is all over the map as well. It represents his life as an artist, always changing and evolving, never staying in the same place. But what remains constant is his honesty and his ability to laugh at himself and his life.

"SWELL" is an album that's both humorous and reflective. It's about adapting to the new circumstances and obstacles life likes to throw in our way."That Age" follows the aging process as it recognizes that, with each new year we're on this planet, more and more friends will drop out of our lives. And whether it's due to their death or that they're just sick to death of us, we experience and mourn each loss. He sets a somber tone in "Lonely Feeling"  which explores emotional loss. But then, follows it with the humorous "Wake You", where Eric, attending a friend's party, laments the loss of his youth realizing, "Over half the people there I could've been their father." Entering the mind-blowing age of parenthood is sensitively addressed in, "Getting Young."  You can almost see the bemused smirk on his face as he tries to convince himself and us that  through each change he "feels swell in a perfectly unusual way." And his enthusiasm is contagious.

 The Hollywood Drunks are able to make us laugh at the absurdities in life, all the while encouraging us to live each day as if it's our last.  and by the end of "SWELL" we can see the power and beauty of accepting each face-slapping change that life blindsides us with and we, too, feel "SWELL".