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Steve Steele is featured on Outbound Radio |
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 In 2003, singer/songwriter/performer Steve Steele recorded the InfraRed IntroSpective EP (aka IRIS) and quickly formed a band to perform fifty-plus shows that year and the next around the Texas area. Included in those shows were two appearances at SXSW. Feeling like IRIS had been personally unrepresentative, Steele, after several starts and stops, began working on his first full-length album—a “British Authoritative” sound that is epic in style yet instantly accessible. Steele, a stylized dramatic baritone trained in the Bel Canto Singing tradition, has the versatility and range that give him the unique ability to sing a fine line between modern and operatic styles. Educated in music composition, theory, and multiple instruments at the renowned music college at The University of North Texas, Steele decided that a complete sea change was in order. Citing as his inspirations the composers Claude Debussy and Erik Satie; the writers T. S. Elliot and John Cheever; and pop musical icons David Bowie and Morrissey, Steele began with the abstract idea of creating a sound that combined energy and ambiance with a surrounding narrative. Now in 2009 we have The Expat. The album starts off with a minute of mystery that quickly explodes into “Revelation on the Radio” and “Dramatic Girls Forever!” Throughout The Expat, Steele lets the tug of war between energy and ambience play out in such songs as “Via Satellite” and “My Brother, The Devil,” and ”Godwin Park”—the most inconspicuous of songs—whereas songs such as “So Pretty,” “New York City,” and “Staromestaska” in succession give pause to moments of beauty and anguish that capture the listener throughout the album until the more uncertain finale of “Star City.” Joining Steele, who in addition to singing, plays guitar, bass, piano, and synthesizer on The Expat, are guitarist Scott Ayers (The Walking Timebombs), guitarist Don Mackenzie, and drummer Richard Cholakian. |
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