Totally Real [LP]

Totally Real is the debut album from Total Heat, a chameleon music project led by Ross Wallace Chait. Taking leads from the musical legacy of Laurel Canyon, where he was raised, he's always admired the rock n' roll songwriting craft despite an insatiable tendency toward experimental music and improvisation. Love of music guided him through a slew of bands in his teenage years, deep experiences playing jazz, countless noise cassette releases, two years as Randy Newman's right hand man, ties to the Coltrane family, international tours on drums with Girlpool among others, and, most significantly, a truly unique stylistic sensibility that blends it all. The album is a testament to how music can capture the life experience of an individual not only by what it says, but by how it sounds. On this debut album, Chait sets out to loudly and proudly state that a life lived for music is the strangest and most beautiful life there is. Recorded (mostly) at home with a characteristic "mid-fi," jazzy, noisy mood, this record comes from the mindset that humor and honesty, references and exploration, form and formlessness can all coexist in an album or even a song if the attitude's right.