Cautiously Optimistic

Davíd Garza

Title: TBA

Label: Lava/Atlantic

Release Date: TBA

Why the Delay: "Why the delay? I'm putting this out on a major label," says Davíd Garza, noting that the blessing and curse of being on Atlantic imprint Lava is that it's a small label with big stars (Kid Rock, Matchbox 20). In truth, Garza says waiting for Lava's pipeline to clear has proved a worthwhile exercise. "Having some distance from the record has been good," he says from New York where he's been working on remixes and song selection. "To me, it's already stood the test of the time. It's not like it was a very 'Spring 2000' record and we missed the boat."

What to Expect: This time last year, Garza was reluctant to discuss plans for his sophomore Atlantic release. A source at Atlantic wasn't as shy and disclosed that Garza would record in Woodstock, New York, with Living Colour's old rhythm section, bassist Doug Wimbish and drummer Will Calhoun. Garza did just that last February, only now he's equally reluctant to discuss what those sessions yielded, mainly because which of the 38 songs he recorded will make the album is still up in the air. He will say that working with Wimbish and Calhoun wound up being more fun and more fruitful than he even expected.

"I wanted to work with a duo that already had their own thing," says Garza, who self-produced the album in 100-year-old church. "Not necessarily so they could come in and do their thing, but a duo that came with a vibe and a vocabulary between them already in place. They definitely had that and it wound up being a lot of fun hanging in a big room playing rock & roll. I learned a lot."

Notable Co-Conspirators: Along with Wimbish and Calhoun, Garza recorded both alone and with two other pairs of collaborators: one session featuring Craig Ross and Juliana Hatfield and another with longtime collaborators Chris Searles and Gemma Cochran.