New Release – We Have Your Son But Please Take Him Back (album) by Goodbye Charlemagne
Goodbye Charlemagne is the musical alter ego of Kevin Froleiks, a failed comedian turned failing musician based out of New York City. For over a decade, Kevin could be seen performing stand up comedy all over the city and was a sketch comedy writer at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre. In 2020 he pivoted back to his first love of music and began writing and recording original songs from his bedroom studio in Queens, NY. In 2023 he completed an ambitious project in which he wrote, recorded, and released 40 new songs which made up four albums in four very different genres, ranging from garage rock, to disco, to synthpop. His upcoming release, ‘We Have Your Son, But Please Take Him Back’ completes this project with ten new alternative rock songs.
“As a late 80s baby, I grew up in the 90s and was surrounded by the sounds of some amazing alternative rock music. I have a distinct memory of being 4 years old and finding my parents’ copy of REM’s ‘Out of Time’ on cassette and playing it over and over again. Those songs immediately connected with me musically, even if I didn’t quite understand them lyrically at that age. I grew up in the era of Nirvana and The Meat Puppets and really wanted to make an album that paid homage to the music I loved so much growing up.”
“In 2023 I set the ambitious goal of writing and recording four new albums, all in different genres, so I had to work quickly. Luckily my background in sketch comedy had prepared me for quick turnaround times. I started writing the music for ‘We Have Your Son, But Please Take Him Back’ in late September 2023, just after releasing my synthpop album, ‘The British Invasion: Part II’. I wrote and recorded the ten songs on this album in just over a month, finishing up the final recording on the morning of Halloween.”
“One thing that I am incredibly proud of with my music, and specifically the four albums I recorded in 2023, is that all of them are very different from each other. This upcoming album is heavily influenced by 90s alt rock but the previous albums were inspired by 80s synthpop, 70s disco, and 60s garage rock. All four of these releases sound distinct from one another, but one thing that connects them all is the often humorous, sarcastic, or otherwise satiric lyrics. I like to write a song the same way I would write a good joke or sketch, which is to have each verse and chorus be the beat of a story, with a somewhat clear beginning, middle, and end.”
“I am always incredibly excited to share a new release with people and I personally think that this upcoming album is my best work to date. This is the kind of music I grew up with and it holds such a big place in my memory and I think a lot of people who have fond nostalgia for the artists of this era will really connect with it.”
“One thing that always stood out to me about 90s alternative rock albums was the cover art, and specifically the fact that so many of them revolved around the image of a child, usually with a stern expression on their face. I’m thinking about albums like Soul Asylum’s ‘Let Your Dim Light Shine’ or Jellyfish’s ‘Spilt Milk’ or Blind Melon’s self-titled record. My album artwork actually features my own baby picture, taken in 1989. I was a happy kid so there’s not many pictures of me looking stern or despondent so I decided to go the other direction and have a happy baby with a somewhat dark and ironic title. I ended up landing on the concept of a kidnapper’s ransom note and cut out the letters from an old magazine I had laying around. Although I had the album title and concept planned out first, I ended up exploring the “kidnapping” subject in the closing track to this album, ‘Go Wildcats’.”
‘We Have Your Son But Please Take Him Back’ is out 1st December. Pre-save the album here.
