Will Schwartz, the Queens-based musician, author and songwriter who goes by The Male Pattern, is releasing his first album, I Was Shot in the Heart!, Sept. 25 through Barely Out Recordings. This ndie/Americana/alt-country project is a mixture of storytelling of Bruce Springsteen and the quirkiness of Ween.
It is the first musical composition that Schwartz has undertaken since he decided to switch from music to writing fiction more than ten years ago. Previously, he had been a songwriter and singer in a band called Uncles, along with Daniel Bateman of Frog and Tom White.
I Was Shot in the Heart! is a character-driven conceptual album where an anonymous suburban father goes through a series of events including divorce, unemployment, violence, drug addiction, and a search for validation in a bizarre way. Set in and around White Plains, the album uses Americana tropes to tell the tragic yet comedic story of a deeply flawed man.
According to Schwartz, some of his influences include Terry Allen, Randy Newman, Darren Hayman, and Alex Cameron, whereas he describes the project as one that allows him to do something ugly and weird beyond his scholarly work.
alt-countryamericanaBarely Out RecordingsDaniel BatemanFrogI Was Shot in the Heart!indie rockNew York Music
