preparing to back Alan Alda at The Music Hall, Bob Lord talks about his Red Fez label and his new solo CD, “Audio for Film, TV and Games”

The bespectacled Bob Lord is an excitable fellow, especially when you ask him about music. This explains why the 29-year-old Andover, Mass., native and Newmarket resident always has his fingers in as many musical pies as he can handle—that and the amount of coffee the man drinks. Besides his many years as a nationally touring musician in his longtime prog-a-billy outfit Dreadnaught, Lord managed to start his own music empire of sorts with the creation of Red Fez Records, which has signed a diverse group of local and regional bands, from the rootsy Ed Jurdi to the rocking Adria, the sex-fueled pop-punk of Lord of the Strings to the whacked-out computo-funk of Museum of Science. Red Fez licenses music for film and television as well. Most recently, Dreadnaught was tapped to be the house band for the upcoming “Writers on a New England Stage” series (the first event is Monday, Nov. 21 at The Music Hall with Alan Alda, followed by Doris Kearns Goodwin on Dec. 10). Somewhere in there Lord managed to record his debut solo CD “Audio for Film, TV and Games,” which will be released at The Music Hall on the night they back Mr. Alda. We asked Lord about all of his musical endeavors. Does he ever sleep?

So how did your first solo album come together? Was it a plan all along, or did you just need another outlet for the bazillion songs you write?
Over the last couple years, I’ve worked steadily on a whole lot of film, TV and new media gigs as a composer, producer and music supervisor, and I’ve ended up with a large body of instrumental music created specifically for these visual projects. It was and is a lot of music, and certain slices of it work really well together. This is a representative slice of those compositions. And frankly, all this talk of slices is getting me hungry.

What was the process like, and how was it different from the band dynamic?
Since the album is a cross-section of different jobs, each piece was recorded under different circumstances and within certain distinct parameters—generally under wildly tight deadlines, late at night, in utter solitude, with two teabags in my cold cup of coffee and a burning desire for some osso buco, or, at the very least, a little fried dough. A few of the pieces were highly collaborative compositionally, such as “Tango & Variations” (with Duncan Watt) and “Cartagena” (with Ed Jurdi), while Matt Langley, Tom Yoder, Chris O’Neill, Watt and Jurdi all perform on the record. Being able to select from such a large pool of tracks gave me a wide array options when it came to sequencing and allowed me to whittle the pieces into an efficient final form.

How does “Audio for Film, TV and Games” differ from Dreadnaught’s music?
Dreadnaught is, I think for us in the group, the apex of completely free creative collaboration and composition. There’s literally nothing off limits, and our last two records, “Musica en Flagrante” (Big Balloon Music, 2004) and “Live at Mojo” (Comet Records, 2005), push it pretty far. I mean, it’s rare for bands to reach consensus with any frequency, much less stay there long enough to put together beautiful, complex, textured pieces like “Stinkytown,” “Eat the Ham,” “Bony Cleave,” and “Are Your Pants Down.” It’s like somebody put something in the water. On the other end of the spectrum, scoring has a very particular focus that interacts closely with many other aspects of the project at hand, with a goal to be hit that is, at its core, not necessarily musical. The music in this collection is the result of required functionality, and this leads to completely different creative options and choices. But in this particular collection, the crazy-quilt eclecticism is still there.

How did you become involved with “Writers on a New England Stage”?
NHPR’s Mike Arnold (now with PRI) contacted me about having Dreadnaught perform as the house band for a proposed live event/broadcast featuring prominent authors speaking about their works. He put me in touch with Patricia Lynch (The Music Hall), who asked me to be musical director for the series. Everybody involved is really excited about the series, and it is definitely kicking off with a bang.

What kind of music will you be playing at this thing though? I imagine it won’t be (Dreadnaught’s) “Ballbuster” or the like.
I realize you were hoping to avoid it, Jon, but there’s going to have to be some advanced harmony and counterpoint, that’s just the way it goes—you can run, but you can’t hide! I’m going to pelt your house with Steely Dan sheet music! But yes, we’ve composed a great theme song for the series and have rearranged some special tunes from Alan Alda’s past, as well as a few Dreadnaught numbers to fit the bill.

And you still manage to get some work done with Red Fez, too, eh? What’s new with The ’Fez?
Lots. The Screen, Tess Walsh, Ed Jurdi, and Museum of Science have songs featured in the films “Submission” (Premiere Snowskate), “Larry’s Home Video” (Static Creations), “Trustfall” (Aisle5), and “Hineini” (Keshet). Mister Vertigo and Adria have been performing heavily throughout New England, and Tractor Trailer released what to my ear is as good as any album I’ve heard this year, “4th of July.”
In early 2006, (West Coast experimental music label) Big Balloon Music is going to release a Dreadnaught 10-year retrospective compilation featuring brand new studio tracks and a whole lot of extras; we’ll be recording with engineer Shaun Frenchie Michaud (producer/composer for Mata Hari) in January and February. My full score for the feature film “Larry’s Home Video” will be released in the spring, and there’s the possibility of a Dreadnaught tour in the summer—we’d love to hit the road and get back into some really dingy Days Inns. Nothing like it.

Writers on a New England Stage
evenings with writers in live radio show format, with host Laura Knoy and house band Dreadnaught to be broadcast on public radio throughout New England.
• Alan Alda will discuss “Never Have Your Dog Stuffed And Other Things I’ve Learned,” on Monday, Nov. 21. The show is sold out.
• Doris Kearns Goodwin will discuss “Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln,” Saturday, Dec. 10 at 8 p.m., $10.
The Music Hall, 28 Chestnut St., Portsmouth, 603-436-2400
www.themusichall.org