SUNDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2001 - Hello again to all of you. It's been such a long time and I apologize profusely for the delay. Like usual, I have only one excuse and it's the same one as always - I'm way, way, way too frigging busy! But at least a lot of my business is related to positive things, including this album!

I'm short on time, so this isn't going to be a full update. I hope to give you one soon, but I'm glad that I'm now at least letting you know that I'm still alive and well and that the album is making great progress!

I finished most of the keyboard tracks and re-recorded a few bass guitar tracks in August and September. I'll be back later with the full story on that. When that was done, I sent the master tape to my guitarist, Mike Walsh of Departure. On a side note, I just found out last night that Mike has also played for Glen Burtnik of Styx! I was really happy to learn that as it gives me another big audience to market my album to!

Mike called me on Friday night and told me that he has recorded the guitar tracks for the album. He sounded very pleased and excited and told me that he's going to send me a CD-R within a few days. I'm really psyched about hearing it and of course, I'll let you know how it is!

Mike told me that his New Jersey neighbor and my vocalist, Tracy White of Intruder and Shotgun Symphony, will likely go to Mike's studio to begin recording his vocal tracks this week and will likely finish them within two days in the studio. Mike added that he will add some guitar fills and Hammond organ after Tracy finishes the vocal tracks. I never thought about using a Hammond, but I told Mike to feel free to improvise and try some things that varied a little from my instructions. I like for the musicains who I work with to be creative and add something of themselves to the recordings. I'm looking forward to hearing how the Hammond sounds in my music. If I like it, I'll keep it in the final mix. Finally, Mike told me that he found one bass guitar note of mine that was wrong but that he already fixed it! Even though I haven't heard his recordings for my album yet, I already like working Mike very much! He goes way beyond the call of duty!

I expect to have the master tapes back sometime in November. When I get them back, I just have a few minor touch ups to make, especially in the album's dramatic introduction. So it looks like the album will have an early 2002 release! And I've also made the decision that a single, Strating All Over Again, will be released probably about two weeks in advance of the album!

And the album continues to get excellent pre-release publicity! The Dutch melodic rock magazine Strutter will include a full page feature on me in their next printed issue!

On a side note, my drummer, Eli Hludzik of Dakota recently e-mailed me, which was our first contact since our recording session on April 14. He and I have a friendly working relationship and I didn't plan for us to go that long without correspondeing with each other, but it happened naturally due to our overloaded schedules. In his message, Eli told me that he's in a new band called Ray's Music Exchange. I'm almost 100% sure that the band is named by the store owned by Ray Charles's character in the movie The Blues Brothers. Based on their web site, it looks like they are an experimental band with a lot of jazz influence. They have a brand new album, which I haven't heard yet, but I look forwrd to it. They've also been touring nationally and I will try to see them if they perform in my area. Even if their music turns out to not be my style, I always enjoy listening to Eli's drumming.

Well, I need to get some sleep now, but I'll try to be back with a full update in the near future. And if I don't have time, I'll give my best effort to at least give a brief update at least once or twice a month. Thanks so much for your continued interest and patience. I hope it will prove to be worth the wait! But it looks like there won't be much more wait until the release of the album It Began in the Underground and the single Starting All Over Again!

See you soon!

Lec

FRIDAY, JULY 27, 2001 - Wow, what an eventful 38 days it's been since my last update! It's been so long since I was bored that I don't even remember when the last time was!

First of all, my first ever interview is now on the net for everyone to see! Check it out at Heart of the Rock! I'm very pleased with the way it turned out! HOTR's Lee Bradfield came up with some great questions and I hope you enjoy my extremely detailed answers! And I hope to get more interview requests in the near future

! And that's not the only publicity that I've gotten on the net recently. A few days ago, I typed my name into a search page and one of the links that came up caught me by surprise. There was my name surrounded by a bunch of words that I didn't recognize! It turned out that a Portuguese melodic rock page, Whiplash posted a news item about me that I was unaware of! When people you've never heard of start talking about you, that's a great sign! As for the content of the message, which was dated June 21, I don't know any of the Portuguese language, but it appears to be a translation of the item that melodicrock.com ran about me on June 14. Anyway, I'm very thankful for all of the pre-release publicity that the album is getting and I salute all of those who are helping spread the news about my upcoming album. I will do my best to return the favor someday soon! Especially for Lee, who not only gave me my first interview but also introduce me to my drummer, Eli Hludzik of the melodic rock band Dakota (see previous updates for more on him). I'm very happy that Lee is already a mega-Lec Zorn die-hard! And I hope he still will be after hearing my music! And I hope to have at least 25,000 fans like him someday!

Onto the album itself, I'm excited to announce that I'll be returning to Canyon Studios on August 4 - a week from tomorrow - to record all of the albums's keyboard tracks. Joining me and producer Chris Cassetta will be my good friend Keith Brooks. Keith is letting me use his synthesizer arsenal, which he recently told me, includes the model that Van Halen used on their classic album 1984. I'm psyched as that album contains some of my favorite keyboard sounds ever, particularly on the phenomenal title track, one of my favorite introductory pieces ever!

As a way of thanking Keith, I'm allowing him to play some of the keyboard parts on the album. He's scheduled to arrive at my place on Thursday night. We plan to rehearse all day Friday in preparation for the next day's session. Like always, my goal is to nail everything on the first take to reduce the cost of studio time, as I'm renting by the hour. That might seem like an unrealistic goal as Keith has never heard any of these songs and will have to learn them in their entirety in one day! But he told me that he can do it and I trust him! Especially after seeing how quickly Eli learned his parts. He learned nine complete songs in just four hours of total rehearsal time! And besides, while my music is more complex than that of AC/DC and ZZ Top, it's significantly less complex than that of Yes and Emerson, Lake and Palmer! So a full day should be enough time for Keith to learn everything!

The recording session is scheduled to begin at 12:00 EDT (GMT - 5:00) on Saturday, August 4 and all of you are welcome to attend. Unlike many artists, I don't mind having fans in the studio while I'm recording. In fact, I enjoy it as long as they are well behaved. Besides, if they are big melodic rock fans, they can be very useful in getting second and third opinions. If you're interested in attending, e-mail me at [email protected] and let me know! I hope to see you there!

Speaking of seeing you there, I'm sorry that I didn't see any of you at the Billy Graham Crusade last month or on my European vacation from June 30-July 9. As many friends as I have in my area and in many parts of Europe, I thought I might arrange to meet with a few of you, but it didn't work out this time. Oh well, maybe next time! But both were very great and unique experiences that I will never forget.

I've heard that the Billy Graham Crusade will be on TV in September. If that's the case and I'm shown on TV (they often show close ups of some people in the audience at those things) and later become famous, that will become a major collector's item. Much like an early video of The Beatles in which a young Phil Collins appears in the audience! Anyway, check your local listings or Rev. Graham's web site to find out when the Crusade will air in your area.

And by the way, thought I didn't run into or hook up with any of your at the Crusade, I did run into an old friend. I noticed that one of the counselor's there had a name badge that read Jeremy Bland. I had a name by that name in my hometown of Madison, Indiana, which is about 50 miles (80) km from Louisville. I asked him if he was the one and he said yes. I told him who I was and He was as stunned as I was! I couldn't remember when he had moved from Madison, but he told me that it was 1978! Like me, he's now 30. What are the odds of two 7-year olds running into each other 23 years later and still remembering each other?! Without a doubt that was one of the most amazing incidents of my life!

As for Europe, I had a great vacation there. I flew into Prague (Praha), Czech Republic (�eska Republik�), arriving on June 29. Mai-Helen's orchestra had a concert there. It was my first visit to a former communist country. I was extremely impressed by the architecture there. Many historic buildings have been preserved from the 1300s and 1400s. To put things in perspective, we ate dinner one night at a restaurant called St. Thomas' Beerhouse, which has been open continuosly since - no kidding - 1352! I guess they'll be having a huge 650th anniversary bash next year!

As for the country, it's good to see that it's making economic progress. There still appears to be some poverty - I saw a lot of plain looking 10-15 story apartment buildings that the communists apparently built and sadly, some of them look like they haven't been maintained very well - but it looks like the country is moving in the right direction. But musically, they have a long way to go! At some record stores there, the classical section is bigger than the rock section! I'm not putting down classical music, which I have great respect and appreciation for, but I feel bad for the Czechs being so deprived of the greatest art form ever - melodic rock! I guess the communists strongly repressed rock music and it's only started to gain momentum in Eastern Europe in recent years. I saw scores of advertisements in Prague for classical concerts but few for rock concerts. One of those few was a billboard advertising an AC/DC show!

After two days in Prague, we drove into Austria and it's the only time my passport has ever been checked on the way out of a country. A remnant of communism, I guess. It was my first time ever in Austria as well and I was impressed. It's the most scenic country I've been to so far. The population is sparse and the people were very warm and friendly, though the English speaking was pretty bad. Surprisingly, it was better in Prague than in Austria. Maybe that's because there are so many tourists in Prague.

We intended to just stay in Austria for a couple of days and then spend several days in Germany, but we liked Austria so much that we spent four days there. The only downside is that we had to rush through Germany to get to Kiel for our boat ride to Oslo, Norway. This was my second time in Germany and my fourth in Norway. And my fifth visit to Norway is already set. I'm planning on returning there for Christmas, which will make this my first Christmas away from America - and guarantee me an extremely white Christmas!

Well, it's time to post this update, but I'll be back again soon with the full report on Saturday's session! I hope it goes well and if it does, the master tapes should be in the hands of my vocalist, Tracy White of Intruder and Shotgun Symphony, and Mike Walsh of Departure. I'm mega-psyched about hearing what I'm sure will be classic performances by both of them! And I expect to have another major announcement or two very soon!

As always, mega-thanks for your continued encouragement and support. I'll be back very soon with more. The light at the end of the tunnel keeps getting brighter and brighter and I really believe that we'll be able to reach it in just a few months! After nearly 2/3 of a decade making this album, it feels so good to finally be talking about its release in months rather than years. So I can only imagine how good it will feel when the album is released!

Until next time, take good care and God bless you all,

Lec

TUESDAY, JUNE 19, 2001 - Hi everybody, this is just a quick update to give you a few exciting notes! And it also sets my record for shortest gap between updated - 5 days, shattering the old record of 21 (from January 21 to February 11)! First of all, I'm very happy and proud to have been listed in the June 14 update of melodicrock.com! This great page has been THE resource for melodic rock news for the past several years. Whoever runs the page does an outstanding job of keeping melodic rock fans up to date with the latest developments of artist who cover the entire spectrum of melodic rock - AOR, hard rock, West Coast, metal, prog, etc. Since being listed there, visits to my site have skyrocketed and hopefully this is just the beginning!

Also, I'm pleased to announce that I'm currently in the process of giving my first interview! It will be with my pal Lee Bradfield of another great melodic rock page, Heart of the Rock! This is particularly appropriate as Lee introduced me to the band Dakota, which led to my discovering their fabulous drummer Eli Hludzik, who ended up playing on my album!

I'll let you know when the interview is posted, which hopefully will be very soon! Anyway, I'll be back again soon with a lot more to tell! This might be my last update before my European vacation from June 28-July 9. But if it is, I'll at least have an update by mid-July.

By the way, there's been a slight change in my vacation plans. It looks like I won't be in Sweden or Denmark after all, sorry to say. But hopefully I will be again soon. But I will probably be spending at least two days in in the Czech Republic, Austria, Germany and Norway! I hope to see you there! If any of you can refer to me any cool record stores in those countries, please do so!

And like I said in my last message, I hope to see some of you at the Billy Graham Crusade at Papa John's Cardinal Stadium in Louisville this Thursday-Sunday.

Keep melodic rockin'!

Peace & love,

Lec

THURSDAY, JUNE 14, 2001 - First of all, a million apologies for taking so long - 74 days, to be exact - to give you another update! It's been an extremely busy time for me but on the bright side, a lot of that time has been consumed in making my debut album, It Began in the Underground!

The recording session that I mentioned in my last update, indeed, took place on April 14 - two months ago, amazingly. Man, the time has just passed by me like a fast train that's here and gone (This will separate the mega-die-hard melodic rock junkies from the die-hard melodic rock junkies - what song did I just quote?!). It went very well, I'm happy to say!

When I decided six years ago that I was going to make an album, I really wanted to go all out and make the best album possible - one that meets up with the best melodic rock albums of all time not only in song quality but also in recording quality. While great songs can still be effective with mediocre recording, excellent recording can certainly enhance a song.

I didn't want to compromise anything, so I set out to find a top notch studio. I did in Canyon Studios. I also knew the importance of a drummer. To me muscle and melody are both extremely important elements in music. I place equal emphasis in them. And the drums are the backbone of power in music. So as mentioned in my previous updated, I selected Eli Hludzik of the melodic rock band Dakota (see previous updates for more on him).

The recording session was scheduled to begin at 11:00 a.m. I was running a little late and arrived about 11:15-11:20. Eli arrived within about five minutes. Though I had booked the studio for all day, Eli, a student at the University of Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, told me that he had to be back in Cincinnati - about a two hour drive - by 8:00 because of a temporary curfew imposed in the midst of the much publicized rioting in that city.

Aside from my anger at that - as a hard core supporter and defender of our Constitution, I believe that curfews flagrantly violate the First Amendment, which guarantees, among other things, the right of people to peacefully assemble - I was concerned that we might not get all the drumming finished that day. Eli and I have had a hard enough time making our schedules fit already as we're both very busy people. And besides that, after all the delays of the past six years, I just want to get this album finished! Without sacrificing qualtiy, of course!

So just like our prevoius two rehearsals (see the January 21 and March 11 updates), Eli and I were again pressed for time. Especially considering that it can take lots of time to get drums set up and miked in a way that produces the best possible sound. By the time everything was ready to go, it was about 2:30, leaving us just three 1/2 hours before the 6:00 time I figured Eli would feel like he had to leave to make the curfew. But like our previous two rehearsals, we rose to the occasion!

Eli, to quote my man Tiger Woods, brought his A-game and kept it going throughout the session! He nailed all eight of the album's songs that feature drums in four takes or less! And he did, I believe, two in the first take! And at least a couple of the times we had to do a second take, it was my fault - I made a mistake on keyboards and threw him off!

Throughout Eli's portion of the session, I stood in the closet sized room where the vocals are recorded, playin keyboards and, the best that I could, singing along to guide him. He did a great job and stayed with the click track phenomenally well (For those of you who don't know, a click track is a device that helps musicians keep time by making a click sound every beat, much like a metronome. The click track will not be heard on the album.).

Eli left at about 6:30, in which case he would have had to have averaged about 70 mph (about 112 kph) to make it home in time. I'm sorry to say that I haven't had any contact with him since the session. I'll try to remember to give him a call soon.

After he left, I went back in the listening room with producer Chris Cassetta and my long time pal Robert Landrum - who photographed the session and helped set the click track - and recorded the bass guitar parts. I got all of them done fairly quickly, within just a few takes. The cool thing about recording vocals most instruments in multi-track recording is that when you make a mistake, you can just back up and start recording just a few seconds before your mistake. This is commonly referred to as the producer "punching you in." It allows you to correct a mistake without having to start the whole song over. With drums, you don't have that convenience because so many tracks are being recorded onto at once and a mistake will pick up on the other tracks as well.

On a side note, because of that, I'm always very uptight when drums are being recorded, thinking "please don't make a mistake." It's a rotten feeling when a drummer is on a perfect take and screws up near the end, forcing an entire retake and costing me money in studio time. Fortunately, Eli saved me lots of money by using so few takes!

Anyway, I got the bass guitar tracks finished, but will probably re-record one to fit a slight change I recently made to the chord pattern of the chorus of one song. Fortunately, that change doesn't change the length of the song at all, so the drums can stay as they are!

And while I was recording the bass guitar parts, I became even more pleased with Eli's drumming. Hearing his parts on the outstanding sound system there in the listening room, rather than on the headphones I was wearing in the vocal room while he was recording, made a huge difference. After hearing his parts in the listening room, I was even more deeply impressed. I now know for sure that the drums on my album will sound as professional as the drums on any album released by a major record company.

Eli showed his versatility as a drummer, adapting to my hard rocking sound by playing with power - more power than he plays with in his softer rocking band Dakota - and also put in a few other influences, apparently from his jazz studies.

Well, that's probably the most you'll ever hear a recording artist talk about the drumming on his album! But that's how important a good drum sound is to me! Nothing is official yet, but I would be very interested in working with Eli on my second album. Besides his mega-quick learning ability and excellent performance, he's very easy to work with and lives fairly close. So I expect I'll be giving him a call when it's time to record my second album, which I hope to have released within two years of the release of my first album.

One more thing about Eli - those of you interested in hearing his music, now might be your best chance ever to add it to your collection. The AOR/West Coast CD ordering service Thoughtscape Sounds is liquidating its CDs and selling them at low prices! This includes four Dakota albums! I just ordered about 20 CDs from Thoughtscape earlier this week! They have a fabulous selection! As for Dakota albums, I particularly recommend them to fans of Chicago, Toto , and Little River Band.

Back to the recording session: what's ironic about the album's first recording session be such a success is that it took place during a very tumultuous time in my life. I was having some pretty bad personal problems that were on my mind throughout that day (I'm happy to say I'm doing much better now). It reminds me of many classic artists who have done some of their best work in the midst of hardship.

After the recording session ended about 9:30, Robert and I headed over to Freedom Hall to check the first ever home game of the Louisville Fire, our new Arena Football 2 team. Having been a huge Arena Football fan since I first saw the sport on ESPN in 1988, I was thrilled that Louisville finally got a team.

When I scheduled the session for April 14, I knew I might have to miss part or all of the game, but if I hadn't booked the session for that day, I might not have been able to have it for a couple of more months, which was a bad option for me. Like I said earlier, I don't want any more delays with this album!

Besides that, with my aforementioned personal problems, I wasn't completely up for the game, which was scheduled to start at 8:00. But I went anyway, thinking it might be therapeutic. Robert and I arrived early in the fourth quarter. It was better than nothing. We lost to the Birmingham Steeldogs 39-21, but still, it was great to finally see Arena Football in person after 13 years! And besides, we've won all four home games since then and I've been at all of them! On another side note, I strongly recommend Arena Football to all football fans. It's outstanding fan friendly football and even better in person than on TV. And the ticket prices are low, sometimes $10 or less. That's especially welcome in this era in which major pro sports are priced way out of the range of the common man.

Okay, back to my album! I plan to return to the studio next month to record the keyboard tracks! I have found some excellent sounds on my Yamaha SY-99 synthesizer, which I purchased last year form Van McLain of Shooting Star. In addition, my longtime friend and fellow melodic rocker Keith Brooks of Pinson, Alabama (near Birmingham) is going to let me use his synthesizer arsenal on the album as well. So I'm confident that the keyboard sounds on the album, like the drum sounds, will be first rate!

After the keyboard sounds are done, I'm going to send the master tapes to my vocalist, Tracy White of Intruder and Shotgun Symphony, and Mike Walsh of Departure. Mike and Tracy have already worked together on the Escape Music Foreigner tribute album, simply titled Foreigner Tribute. After I picked Tracy to perform the lead vocals on my album, he recommended Mike to me, knowing that I was still looking for a guitarist. Since then, I have heard Departure's music and am very impressed with Mike's playing. He reminds me at times Neal Schon of Journey at other times of Jeff Watson of Night Ranger. And as I've previously said, Tracy sounds exactly like Dennis DeYoung of Styx. Let me guess, I already have you salivating!

I'm not going to hold Mike and Tracy to a particular time table to get their part of the recording done, but I don't expect it will take too long. I still hope to have all of the reocrding completed by the end of the Summer. It might take slightly longer than that, but barring a major disaster, it should be done within just a matter of months.

I hope you found this update interesting and informative. I'm sorry it took so long. Hopefully there won't be a gap like this again. Thanks for hanging in there with me and for your continued interest and support. It's great to have such loyal fans even before my album has been released!

I'll try to give you another update within just a few weeks. I expect to have some major announcements to make very soon. A lot of stuff is close to happening that I'll fill you in on very soon! And remember, you can also go to the Mind-It section near the bottom of the main page to be automatically informed via e-mail when this page is updated!

Besides the album, I have quite a bit planned for the next few weeks including my fourth trip to Europe, which is scheduled for June 28-July 9. I plan to visit the Czech Republic, Austria, Germany, Denmark, Sweden and my girlfriend Mai-Helen Myhre's home country of Norway. It will be my first visit ever to the former two countries. I hope to see some of you while I'm over there!

And the weekend before the trip, I plan to be at the Billy Graham Crusade at Papa John's Cardinal Stadium. The event will take place June 21-24 and I expect to attend at least one evening. I've never seen Rev. Graham in person before and considering that he's 82 and not in very good health, this is probably my last chance to see this legend. So I'm going to make a particular point to attend this event. I hope to see some of you there, also.

Well, that wraps it up for now! I could write much more and I will soon, but for now I need to get going! Best wishes to all of you until next time!

Lec

SUNDAY, April 1, 2001 - I'm short on time now, but it's been three weeks since the last update, so I wanted to give you another one, especially since there is some big news to report!

On April 14 - a week from Saturday - I will be entering Louisville's Canyon Studios with by drummer, Eli Hludzik of the melodic rock band Dakota, and producer Chris Casetta. We'll be recoding keyboard, bass guitar and drums tracks for all eight of the album's songs! As you probably would have easily guessed, I'm mega-psyched about this and I hope you are, too! It really feels like everything is finally starting to fall together for this album!

In addition, I'm very pleased to announce the guitarist for my album - Mike Walsh of the melodic rock group Departure! My album's vocalist, Tracy White of Intruder and Shotgun Symphony, made the contact and I'm quite confident that Mike's blazing melodic solos and hard hitting power chords will be a great addition to my album!

After Eli and I finish our tracks, the tapes will be promptly sent to Mike and Tracy, who will be recording their tracks together. So if all goes smoothly, all of the album's recording might be done before the end of Spring! That would give me ample time to fulfill my goal of a late Summer release! Of course, I'll keep you all updated!

I feel very fortunate to be backed by the all-star line-up of Eli, Tracy and Mike on my debut album. Just making an album has been a long time dream of mine. And being able to make it with such great musicians with strong international followings really enhances the experience!

Well, that's it for now! But I'll be back with much more soon, including the complete story of the April 14 session! Take good care until next time! We'll talk again soon!

Lec

SUNDAY, March 11, 2001 - Wow, it's been a month to the day now since my last update (though only a 28 day month)! Time flies not only when you're having fun, but also when you're extremely busy! And with me, the last month has been more the latter than the former! But I have managed to squeeze not only some fun out of the last four weeks days, but also some productivity!

I just got back from Cincinnati, where I had my second rehearsal with my album's drummer, Eli Hludzik of the melodic rock band Dakota (for more on Eli and his band, see the January 21 news update below). The rehearsal had been scheduled for each of the past two weekends, but both times, Eli had to cancel because of his schedule, which is even more frenzic than mine!

But we finally got together and went through four songs in about two hours! Three of the songs were You Keep Me in the Dark, Long Time Coming and Keepers of the Eternal Flame, all of which are mentioned in the February 11 update. Also rehearsed was the album's theatric/symphonic introduction, Genesis, which fuses together melodies and chord patterns from later songs on the album but in a different way. I really like the way this piece is developing. I think it would make an ideal opening song for my live concerts. It's one of those that calls to mind the house lights going down one by one, the people going bonkers, smoke rising from the stage, etc.! I've always been crazy for stuff like that! My favorite, by the way, is the Alan Parsons Project's powerhouse Sirius,, a song made famous by the Chicago Bulls in the rock concert style starting line-up introductions they used during the Michael Jordan era. Many other sports teams now use it also and for good reason. Though actually, I first discovered the song as a pro wreslting fan in the mid-to-late 1980s when it was the theme song of Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat! I loved the song and when it ran into Eye in the Sky, a song I'd heard on the radio many times, I figured out that it was APP! Pay attention, people, this stuff is important!

Back to the rehearsal, this one, like the first, generally went very smoothly. We had a little trouble with Keepers of the Eternal Flame, but that was partly because I changed the key of the song last night (so I could get some harder hitting bass piano notes in) and hadn't fully gotten comfortable playing the song in its new key. Also, the song has several changes in drum patterns.

But we got through it eventually and I really think the final product will very strongly appeal to fans of the long abandoned art form of the power ballad (See my comments on this subject of the February 11 update for more on this)! And once again I was impressed by Eli's quick learning ability and creativity.

In addition, this time I noticed he put a lot quite a bit of jazz influence into his drumming (I guess this stems at least partly from his majoring in Jazz studies). I really like that. It adds a new dimension to the music, which is good. One of the few rock drummers I can think of who fuses jazz with rock is Rod Morgenstein of Winger, the Dixie Dregs, the Steve Morse Band and the studio project Platypus. Even in the pop metal Winger, he did this quite well and it really enhanced their music.

That reminds me, since my album was conceived six years ago, made a resolution not to hold back any of the musicains who I worked with from going all out and adding themselves to the recording. I've seen so many examples of musicians who I had heard for years and thought were orinary but then saw in concert or heard on a solo/other group album and was amazed. And I realized that their talent had been wasted so sadly for so long. I'm striving to make a melodic rock album that is unique and allowing the musicians I hire to come up with their own ideas will help me achieve that goal.

By the way, the album's two covers listed below have been dropped from this album. I decided that neither is quite ready yet and I might use them in the future.

And that leads me to another big announcement - the track listing and running order for my album is complete! It is: Genesis, Long Time Coming, Keepers of the Eternal Flame, Fighting Chance, You Keep Me in the Dark, Starting All Over Again, Going the Distance.

Eight songs, all of which I believe are new melodic rock classics. There are no fillers on this album, I'm happy and proud to say! Having a filler free album was one of my goals from the start! To me, even most of my favorite albums of all time have a song or two that I think is just mediocre. I didn't want that.

So is eight songs enough for a full album? Well, I though about that. Then I remembered Led Zeppelin's fourth album (What's the actual title of that one, anyway?!) and Boston's self-titled album. There's a couple of duds! Also, Styx's The Grand Illusion! So I figured eight is enough!

There will be a ninth track on the album, though. An interview with me! I got this idea from my favorite songwriter of all time, Kerry Livgren, the leader of my favorite musical artist of all time, Kansas. On his 1996 re-issues of his first solo album, Seeds of Change and his first album with AD, Time Line, Kerry includes 20 minute-plus interviews.

I still haven't heard the Seeds of Change interview (I already had the Japanese CD version of the album and have never gotten around to buying the American version), but I heard the Time Line interview and think it really enhances the album, adding a nice personal touch.

Apparently, Kerry's Kansas bandmate Robby Steinhardt liked the idea, too, because on his other band Steinhardt-Moon's 1999 Moonshot album, he and bandmate Rick Moon did an interview, also (actually, theirs was just a conversation between Rick and Robby).

I'm really surprised that after all these years, so few artists have done this. But I'm going to do it and I hope you enjoy it! Conducting the interview will be none other than my good friend Jeff Matheus, an accomplished rock journalist who publishes a fan magazine for the progressive rock group Pendragon, one of my favorite new proggers - total synthesizer euphoria, thanks to one of my heroes of the instrument, Clive Nolan (also of the bands Arena and Strangers on a Train I'm sure Jeff will come up with lots of great questions! And I'll do my best to come up with interesting answers!

One concluding thought, it hit me that now all of the songs on my album are my own. That's a dramatic change from what I originally expected. At first, I thought that the album would be divided about equally between my originals and great unreleased material by other artists. But that became less necessary as I compiled more and more original songs that I was proud it. And finally, I had a whole album's worth.

Is that an ego thing? Absolutely not, though it does make the album even more personal as everything on it came out of my heart and many of the songs are based on very deep emotional experiences that I've had. Other people's music can be very emotional to me, too, but there's something even more special about it when it's your own.

If it was an ego thing, I wouldn't be hiring so many outside musicians. To me, it's all about making this the best album possible. I'm doing the things that I think I do best - write the songs and play keyboards and bass guitar. I don't think that I play guitar or sing well enough and I don't play drums or violin at all. I believe that one of the greatest strengths one can have is to know his/her weaknesses and take the appropriate steps to overcome them. That's what I'm trying to do here.

Combining those weaknesses with my strenghts, I hope to make this the best album of all time. That's an extreme goal, but to quote the new Shooting Star classic If You Want It, "It's better to try and fail than to never try!" Words of wisdom!

And now that I think of it, what kid grows up dreaming of being the second best basketball player of all time? So why should it be any different with music?! So I'm striving to be the best and if I fall short of that, I hope to at least be one of the best! And I hope that my music will be as uplifting, inspiration, encouraging and hopeful to you as it is to me.

Eli and I are going to try to get in the studio on April 1 to get the drum and some of the keyboard tracks recorded. And like I said in the February 11 update, I hope to have the album released by the end of Summer. I still think that's a realistic goal.

Well, that concludes another news update. But I expect to be back soon with much more, so check back often and remember to go to the Mind-It section near the bottom of the main page to be automatically informed through e-mail whenever this page is updated.

Well, once again, I realize that, as I said to start this message, time flies when you're having fun! I just realized that I've missed the announcement of the pairings for the NCAA Tournament! Oh well, I'll catch up with it on the net!

And one other thing I forgot to mention. In addition to the usual http://www.leczorn.com address, you can now also reach this page at http://www.grungesucks.com! I figured this address would be easy to remember for some people who might not remember my name or at least the spelling of my name (it really does confuse people, especially when mentionin my name in conversation, and I'm often mistakently referred to as "Lex")! It also could also help me be discovered by another anti-grunger who types in that address randomly! And finally, it symbolizes my unwavering and zealous opposition to the dark forces of grunge and my determination to make music that is completely its opposite!

Once again, thanks for your interest, encouragement and support! We'll talk again soon!

Lec

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2001 - Hello again everybody, this is Lec, welcoming you to my second news update. My recent string of good luck concerning my debut album, It Began in the Underground, is continuing, I'm happy to say. That's a very welcome contrast to the years of setbacks that I went through to get to this point. And that's a valuable lesson on the virtue of Perseverance,, to borrow the title of a song on my album! But that's another story for another time! On to the news now!

First of all, I'm ecstatic to report to you that two of the biggest melodic rock companies in Europe have recently expressed interest in my album! This has given me even greater enthusiasm and motivation. I already had plenty, but to know that companies to which some of my favorite artists are signed are interested in my music - it's an extremely (oh yeah, I forgot - the English spelling has been changed to "xtremely!") good feeling. I hope to have a major announcement to make on this subject in the very near future! So stay tuned!

My album's drummer, Eli Hludzik of the melodic rock band Dakota (for more on Eli and his band, see the January 21 news update below) called me Thursday night. We set up a date of February 24 for our second rehearsal. We're tentatively planning on recording in late March/early April and expect to get the drum tracks for all 10 songs finished in one session. Shortly afterward, I will record the keyboard and bass guitar parts (I'm playing both instruments) and also expect to finish it in one session.

At that point, the master tapes will be sent to vocal senastion Tracy White of Intruder and Shotgun Symphony. And speaking of Tracy, he called me and left a message on my answering system last Monday night. I was really glad to hear from him because I hadn't had any communication with him since early November and was starting to get concerned. It turned out that he had moved and forgot to give me his new phone number!

I think all of you will be amazed by Tracy's vocal skills. I first became aware of him about a year ago in a very unusual way. Being a colossal Survivor fan, I check Ebay every few days for stuff from that band (and I've found a lot a great and rare items related to them there). One day, I saw a listing for a CD from the band Intruder, which the item's seller, Dream Disc, compared to Survivor as well as Night Ranger, another fave. (Speaking of NR, I think that Eli's father, Dakota lead vocalist Jerry Hludzik, sounds exactly like NR's Kelly Keagy.) Naturally, I was already hooked, so I bid on the album. I'm pretty sure the minimum bid was $9.99 and I was the only bidder on it. But anyway, I won the auction.

Upon playing the CD, titled Dangerous Nights, for the first time, I instantly understood the comparison to Survivor. The album's first song, Heart's on the Loose, is almost completely a remake of Survivor's Jackie Don't Go but with different lyrics and a different vocal melody! The rest of the album has a few echoes of Survivor, but mainly is general '80s style melodic hard rock. I don't hear a lot of moments on the album that are obviously derived from a particular artist. But soon, I was paying far less attention to the music than to the vocals, which is very unusual to me.

I knew almost instantly that Tracy was the best new singer I had heard in about 20 years. If I hadn't known better, I would have felt 100% sure that I was listening to Dennis DeYoung of Styx! From that point on, he was my number one pick to be my album's vocalist!

Last June, when serious plans for the album started to come together, I e-mailed Intruder's guitarist, Stephen DeAcutis (also of the melodic rock band Arcara), inquiring about Tracy's availability for session work. Stephen asked me for my phone number, saying he'd have Tracy call me. And indeed, Tracy did call right away and I was very happy that he expressed his willingness to sing on the album!

By the way, Tracy, like Eli, is very friendly and easygoing and sometimes rather than talk business, we chat about music for an hour or two. Not surprisingly, we're into most of the same artists.

Tracy also told me that he is the lead vocalist of Shotgun Symphony, which has a strong cult following in Europe and has toured with Whitesnake and another pop metal artist, Tyketto. I actually had heard of SS but didn't own any of their albums. But a flash bulb went off in my head. I thought I had a song of their's on a Frontiers Records (great melodic rock company) sampler that I had gotten at Sound of Noise in Oslo, Norway! The attendant at the store gave it to my fiance Mai-Hel�n Myhre and I, apparently to thank us for buying so much stuff from him! (By the way, if you're ever in Oslo, check this store out! It's one of the coolest record stores in the world, specializing in melodic rock and all forms of metal!)

But anyway, the sampler did, indeed, contain an SS song, Sea of Desire. I had only previously played the CD once and while playing it, Mai-Hel�n and I were talking and not listening that closely to all of it. That's probably why I didn't take note of Tracy's vocals then.

I also learned that Intruder's main songwriter, George Karak, collaborated with Jon Bon Jovi to write Bon Jovi's first top 40 single, Runaway. Intruder includes their own version of the song on their brand new album, Believer. On a side note, Tracy played the Intruder version for me over the phone before their new album was released! And by the way, Intruder, like Dakota, is an Escape Music artist. Escape is one of the best melodic rock companies in the world, so it's an exciting privilige to have two of their artists on my album!

One last note about Tracy before moving on to other subjects - he gave me one of the biggest compliments of my life a few months ago. I had called him to discuss some details about the recording. During our conversation, Joe Lynn Turner (Rainbow, Deep Purple, Mother's Army) called Tracy on the other line. (Mai-Hel�n is a huge JLT fan and thought this was even cooler than I did!) Considering Joe Lynn's popularity, I would have expected Tracy to tell me to call him back later, but he chose to stay on the phone with me instead. Being a new artist, it felt great to sense that one of my favorite artists takes me that seriously! I'M NOT WORTHY! I'M NOT WORTHY! Anyway, I'm sure Tracy will do a fabulous job on the album!

Okay, onto some other stuff. Yesterday, I spent several hours writing, practicing and polishing for the album. When 8:00 rolled around, I turned the XFL on and watched it with the TV volume low while sitting at my keyobard playing. Though near the end of the game, I turned the TV volume up and forgot about the keys for a few minutes! It was a fabulous double overtime thriller in which the Los Angeles Xtreme beat the Chicago Enforcers 39-32! (Speaking of which, I'm already an XFL die-hard. I love the NFL, but this new league makes the NFL look so uptight. The XFL remembers that the game is supposed to be fun! I love most of the rules changes and the thing with players having nicknames on their jersies - it reminds me of intramural basketball in high school! It's great!)

After the game, I dove back into my music with full force and probably about 1:00 a.m., I wrote the most awesome thing I've ever written. I was working on the power ballad Keepers of the Eternal Flame - which I'm dedicating to all of the Styx die-hards who were snubbed by the colossally disappointing Brave New World album - and came up for an introduction/verse section that I like. Just experimenting with different chords, I discovered an amazing transition. I love it so much that it's now the intro to the bridge of the song. It really freaked me out and even brought tears to my eyes - the first time my music has ever done that to me. And I think only 7-8 songs by other artists ever have done that to me!

If you love the power ballads by such artists as Styx and Survivor, this one is for you! Sadly, precious few artists are doing these type of songs these days. With melody and passion having been so widely shunned since the emergence of grunge nearly a decade ago, it seems like many artists are now saying "Ooh, we're afraid to make another power ballad. People might think we're a bunch of wussies!" But fortunately, I don't care about the trends at all. I have remained a pure melodic rocker even in the darkest days of the grunge assault. And now, I'm happy to say, we're seeing some light at the end of the tunnel! Melodic rock is steadily making a comeback!

Back to Keepers of the Eternal Flame,, it's one of the songs that I'll be teaching Eli a week from Saturday. Three others are: Long Time Coming, a slow and intense autobiographical rocker that reflects upon my triumph over the years of frustration and setbacks that led to this album; You Keep Me in the Dark, a high energy rocker about a past relationship in which the woman I loved abandoned the relationship but didn't tell me, forcing me to figure it out myself (another long story for another time); and Cast Away a slow and dark theatric/progressive song in the tradition of Genesis and Kansas's Kerry Livgren. I wrote the former two an the latter was written by my friend and Dutch melodic rock artist Alan Case. It's one of several songs of his that I'm surprised he didn't use on his debut album. And it gives me a chance to move more into a prog direction. I love prog in addition to melodic rock and have trying to polish my prog writing skills in recent years. And at least one of my prog compositions, the instrumental Perseverance, will be included on my first album.

Eli and I will rehearse one other song in addition to the aforementioned, but I haven't decided which one. Those five will combine with the five rehearsed on January 20 to complete my album. I have several other songs that I'm enthusiastically working on, but I don't want to halt completion of my album until they're done. (It's really strange - sometimes I'll write a whole song in a day, other times, sometimes it takes literally several years.) Instead, I will save them for my second album, which I hope to have out within 1 1/2-2 years after the first one. I always want to have an album of new material out at least every two years. I want to always be an artist who is constantly growing, never resting on the past like, tragically, so many of my favorite artists have been doing for the last 10 years.

Okay, that just about wraps it up for today! But I'll be back in the very near future with much more, so check back often! And I'm happy to tell you that you can now be automatically informed by e-mail every time this page is updated! Just go to the Mind-It section near the bottom of the main page!

Once again, thank you so much for your interest, encouragement and support. I greatly appreciate it and I promise to stick to my convictions and never sell out! I'm even more excited about this project than I was when I wrote the last update three weeks ago. And hopefully you are, too!

For the past six years, I've been striving to make the ultimate melodic rock album, completely free of influence from grunge and alternative music. Now it looks like it might be released before the end of Summer! To quote a lyric of mine "It's been a long time coming, but it was worth the wait."

Until next time, take good care and God bless you all,

Lec

SUNDAY, JANUARY 21, 2001 - Hi everybody, it's Lec, welcoming you to the first ever news update on my page! I'm sorry that it's taken this long to get one up, but I'm happy to say that the way things are going now, it looks like I'll be updating this section often over the next few months!

Yesterday I had a excellent first rehearsal with drumming great Eli Hludzik of Escape Music recording artist Dakota. Despite a rich history dating back over 20 years and including a 35 concert tour with one of my all time favorites, Queen, I had actually never heard of this melodic rock band until last year. A few moths ago, my South African pal and AOR brother Lee Bradfield was mentioning his favorite artists and Dakota was one of the few I'd never heard of (strangely, another one that I'd never heard of was Roadmaster, which is from Indianapolis, just a couple of hours north of me!). When I told him that I was unfamiliar with Dakota, Lee strongly recommended them, so I, knowing his great musical taste, got their 1997 album The Last Standing Man and quickly became a fan! It's great West Coast style soft rock, done very much in the late '70s/early '80s style. I particularly recommend it to fans of Chicago, Toto , and Little River Band.

Upon reading Dakota's official web site, I was very pleasantly surprised to read that Eli - the son of the group's co-founder, lead vocalist, bass guitarist, co-songwriter and only remaining original member, Jerry Hludzik - is a student at the University of Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, which my mother attended and which is just a two hour drive from the suburban Louisville, Kentucky area, where I reside!

Some of the musicians on my album are planning on recording from across the country, which is fine and often far more convenient, but I like to work with artists in person, when possible, which isn't that often, considering where I live. So I tracked down Eli, telling him that I had been looking for a drummer and I was very pleased when he enthusiastically agreed to play on my album!

We scheduled our first rehearsal for 12:00 p.m. yesterday and at first, it looked like it was going to be an unproductive day. I had car trouble and arrived nearly two hours late. Furthermore, my trunk, where some of my equipment was being stored, was frozen shut (we had a snow storm over the weekend). Eli poured hot water on it and a few minutes later, we finally got it open! I also found out that he hadn't received the tape of four of my songs that I had mailed to him on Tuesday. Surely, I thought, this would greatly slow things down. And as if that wasn't enough, the building at UC in which we were going to rehearse was evacuated because of a fire alarm, which apparently was a false one.

By the time we got inside to one of the private practice rooms, it was 3:00 and, having a play to perform in that night, Eli had only two hours left to rehearse. I was really disappointed and thought we would probably only get to work out two songs. I was wrong!

I knew that he was a great drummer, but I had no idea that he was such a quick learner. Usually, he had a pretty good grasp of the songs - none of which he had ever heard, due to the tape having not arrived - by the second time I went through them. We worked out the first two - Starting All Over Again and Perseverance in about 30 minutes each. Then we worked out the next three - Without Love, Going the Distance and Fighting Chance in about 20 minutes each. (On a side note, I wrote all of those songs except Without Love, which was written by Van McLain and Gary West of Shooting Star. Which reminds me, last year, I purchased a synthesizer [the one I'm pictured playing on the main page] from Van and a bass guitar [the one I'm pictured playing in the pictures section] from Ron Verlin of the same group!)

And now, seeing how quickly Eli learns and how creative he is, I'm glad that he didn't get the tape! If he had, he might have been influenced by it and not come up with some of the cool ideas that he did, among them being some throbbing double bass action in the coda of Perseverance. And Eli, interestingly, told me that Going the Distance reminds him of Journey. I had never thought about it, but now that he mentions it, I think he's right. The artists it had previously reminded me of are Genesis and Asia, two of my absolute biggest influences. I like Journey, too, but not as much as some other bands from the same era.

So we managed to squeeze a very productive day out of it all, despite having only 40% of the time that we expected! Shortly after finishing the last song, another fire alarm, again apparently false, went off. Had it not been for the one just a little over two hours earlier, I might have been in more of a hurry to get out. But we calmly packed up my gear and walked out.

And in addition to doing a great job, Eli was very nice and very easy to work with. We're planning on getting together next month to record his tracks. And when I was going home, he signed an autograph for Lee who, as I mentioned above, introduced me to Dakota! Imagine - a South African introduces me to a band featuring a student at UC who I end up working with! Small world!

I've collected many autographs for myself over the years, and I think they're great souveniers, but I think this will mean even more to Lee than autographs mean to me. I've attended 109 concerts and met many of my favorite artists, whereas Lee probably has never even been to a concert and I'm pretty sure has never met any of his favorite artists.

One unrelated note before closing out, I'm picking the New York Giants over the Baltimore Ravens 17-10 in Super Bowl IIIV. Without my beloved Indianapolis Colts being in it, it doesn't matter that much to me who wins, I just want to see another thriller like last year. But I'll be pulling somewhat for Baltimore, because they have my former University of Louisville man Chris Redman. Chris didn't play much in this, his rookie season, but I expect him to be a big star in the league in the very near future.

As for the upcoming game, I just doubt that Baltimore's awesome defenese will be enough to overcome their lack of offensive power. But then again, I said that before their victories over the Tennessee Titams (who I predicted would win the Super Bowl) and Oakland Raiders.

Well, it's time for me to close this out, but I'll be back with much more soon. I'm really excited about the way my album is shaping up and I still hope to have it out this year and be touring in support ot it next year. And I still hope to make it the ultimate melodic rock album! Thanks so much for your interest and remember to check back often. Until next time, remember to avoid all grunge and alternative music like the plague! And whatever you do, always bring your A game.

Peace and Love,

Lec


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