El Heladero

Release Date: July 31, 2008

Track List

1. All I Can Do
2. El Heladero
3. Everything Went Wrong
4. Little Ditty
5. Locked and Ready
6. Maybe Someday
7. Put On Your Red Dress
8. Take My Time
9. The New Wave
10. Todo Un Poco
11. Watching You Go

Credits

Recorded 2008 (June 21, 22, 26) at Skyline Studios in Dallas, TX
Produced, engineered, and mixed by Josh Robinson
Mastered by Tim Kimsey
Trumpets on tracks 2 and 5 by Daniel Hardaway
Artwork & Layout by Ray Liberio
Sober in-studio music consulting by Alex Roushani
All music/lyrics/guitars/vocals by Kerry Dean

Album History

Hello everyone. Kerry Dean here from the band Darth Vato. On Thursday, July 31, 2008, I will be releasing my first acoustic CD, El Heladero. It’s kind of crazy how this CD came to be. I’ll go ahead and tell you the story.

Someone recently asked me about what songs I know on guitar. The fact is I don’t know many popular songs. I probably know more Sublime and Descendents songs than the average guy, but I don’t sit around ruining my favorite band’s songs. I pretty much fail at knowing cover songs. I also don’t sit around playing Darth Vato songs. I really need bass and drums to get into those songs. The next question was: If you don’t know any popular songs and you don’t sit around playing Darth Vato songs, what do you play when you are sitting at your house playing guitar? That was a good question.

I thought about it, and I realized that I usually sit around playing a bunch of acoustic song ideas that I have developed over the past 5 or 6 years. What seemed like a very typical question about my favorite songs to play actually got me thinking about my acoustic song ideas. Maybe I should record them at some point. I mean, I think they are good. I think one of the songs is great. What if I got hit by a bus? No one would ever hear these songs. I should record them in a studio. Seriously, why do I need all this money that I had been saving? The economy is doing great. I’ll probably never need a savings account anyway.

This all happened around the time that Darth Vato finished up in the studio. Our new album, Oh No, We’re Doing Great!, sounded fantastic. The new Darth Vato record is completely awesome from top to bottom. It’s easily the greatest record I have ever been a part of. With that album all finished up, I got this sense of confidence in my abilities as a melody writer and lyricist. I may not even be that great, but I remember feeling really good about my songs for a couple of weeks. I wrote the lyrics and melodies for 8 of those songs, and I was certainly proud of them for at least a couple of weeks! The hidden acoustic track on that album really got me thinking that I sounded good with an acoustic guitar in my hands. That hidden track was a one-take wonder thing, and I honestly believe I was channeling D. Boon. Regardless, I thought the acoustic track was a real gem.

It was early March or April. I think. My memory is terrible. Essentialy, I got inspired to record some acoustic tracks. The real leap of faith was actually booking studio time. I called Josh Robinson, and I booked a weekend in June at Skyline Studios in Dallas, TX, so I could record the 5 or 6 song ideas that I had been working on for the past several years. After sitting down and going through all of the song ideas, I realized that I had 11 solid tracks. Holy crap! It ended up taking 30 hours to get everything recorded for all 11 tracks. We basically recorded for 12 hours on Saturday and 12 hours on Sunday. The tracks are raw. There is a lot of extra guitar noise and buzzing. There are a lot of bad notes vocally. It’s everything I had not imagined it would be, but I fell in love with the authentic feel. Even Alex agreed. It sounded awesome because it was raw. There is really no polish on this CD. I think I can hear the metronome bleed through the headphones in a couple of spots. How terrific!

I was exhausted after that weekend. The following Thursday, we met at the studio the record the final vocal tracks. I hired Daniel Hardaway, who played trumpet on the new Darth Vato album, to come play trumpet on two tracks. He was in and out in about 90 minutes. Daniel is a jedi. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. The man knows more about music than I’ll ever know about anything. Seriously. He’s brilliant.

The following Tuesday, I came back to the studio for a mixing session with Josh Robinson. Tim Kimsey took the reigns for the mastering. It hadn’t really crossed my mind to print this CD and offer it to anyone. I really went into the entire project just looking to get some song ideas on disc. I figured I could get 5 or 6 tracks sounding pretty close to perfect. When I realized that I had 11 tracks, I knew that I didn’t have the budget to make everything perfect. Even if I had the money, I’m not a studio musician. This is really the best I can do. After hearing the mixes and the mastered versions of the songs, I actually felt very proud of the entire project. I just had to print it up like a real CD. That’s when I called Ray Liberio, Haltom City’s most infamous, drunken, bass-playin’ graphics designer. (What does that mean? In-famous? In-famous is when you’re more than famous. This man El Guapo is not just famous. He’s in-famous.)

I told Ray that my title track was going to be El Heladero, which basically means ice cream man in spanish. The track itself is a song that truly makes me feel happy. It’s about a guy who pushes the helados cart around a neighborhood. Anyways… Being raised Catholic, I have a thing for stained glass windows. Being a fat guy, I also have a thing for ice cream. I wanted to combine my various loves: Stained glass cathedral windows, ice cream, acoustic guitars. Ray came back in a few days with exactly what i was looking for:

Kerry Dean - El Heladero Album Cover (Front & Back) — Kerry Dean – El Heladero Album Cover (Front & Back)

How about that? Pretty cool, huh? Ray Liberio, everyone.

As for the CD itself, the CD release is July 31 at the Moon in Fort Worth. You can order my CD from CD Baby, iTunes, Amazon, etc… It should be available by the end of August for purchase from those sites. However, I will also be putting all 11 tracks on this website (elheladero.com) for free download. You will be able to download them as mp3 files or wav files, and it will be completely free. If you want the actual CD, you will have to order through my paypal account or from CD Baby. The CD will be mailed to you. In the spirit of Radiohead’s most recent album launch, you can download my entire album for free from this site. If you want to pay, you can. There will be a Paypal icon you can click on to pay me any amount of money you want to pay. That would be cool if you sent some money, but there are no hard feelings if you download my entire record for free.

I will have the entire album available on this site on Friday, August 1. Run along. Tell your friends.

Sounds good.

– kerrydean

Song Lyrics

01. ALL I CAN DO
baby we’ve got time to do the things you want to do and i will be the last one to lose by saying i love you we’re gonna take a little slow dance make a little romance then i’m taking off your pants take me on up put me inside grab a hold of something cuz i’m ready to ride i’m gonna take you on up to the highest mountain bring you on down to the deepest sea it’s just the music it’s all i can do maybe it’s love maybe it’s fate don’t try run i ain’t got time to wait and i’ve got this it’s all i can do well you see me on the side waiting for a slight sigh but i won’t turn around while you’ve got me in your eye please don’t you tell me tonight i’ve been holding steady so we can go inside and i will take it kinda slow while we are getting low you know i’m in full control we can take our time we’ve got the whole night if it becomes a habit we must be doing something right

02. EL HELADERO
i wake in the morning take my kids to school another sunrise before me glad my life is so good put on my hat a smile on my face use the same route every day everyone knows my name i work in the sun and my heart is gold come get your ice cream while it is cold another day on the streets the city i love work hard for my parents even though they’re up above 30 minutes for lunch sitting under a tree count all my blessings they’ll be home at three just a man with a cart out on the road no one to tell me where i can’t go

03. EVERYTHING WENT WRONG
i’m sitting in my car and i‘m dying from the smoke in the air i shouldn’t go in but for you i would go anywhere buy it off him cheap and tell me how it’s what you wanted to be whatever happened to the time when all the good times were drug free the time is right but everything went wrong soon we’ll find a place where we belong hoping it won’t be a lie for you or me i think i’ll turn away now and give you what you gave to me this reminds me of the time when i took another turn for the worse and all you cared about was answering that phone in your purse tell him that i am everything that he can’t stand then ask him what’s it like to have you from the second hand i can look backwards and wonder how i made it at all had to run through trouble but now i’m gonna bust through the wall but after all it’s said i just need a good kick in the head i made it through the times when i should have ended up dead

04. LITTLE DITTY
what can i do so i can prove to you i got what you need in me let go of my hand i will show the type of man who can tear down a wall build it back again tell you the truth forever with a pride to defend and i will take this little ditty put it on my stereo let your hair down slowly saying it’s time to go we’re singing trenchtown rock in the morning legalize it at night and when we wake tomorrow evening i’ll be by your side and i really do like when you hurt me it hurts you too cuz it means that we are agreed look in my eyes i will make it through the darkest of times when you need a little light and i’m at a show paint some stars in your skies like a priceless van gogh

05. LOCKED AND READY
been a few weeks since i’ve seen you like this forgot about the things that i could miss put your hair up steal a kiss when we’re in i’ll see you in a bit when it comes to an end take another shot before the last set in my mind i see your silhouette waiting by a window moonlight pouring through can’t wait to leave it’s long over due so go on with your bad self baby tonight go on with your bad self baby tonight i’m locked and i’m ready rocking you steady you’re looking so deadly tonight see you on the floor with that look in your eye maybe you should stop lick your lips again and i can’t deny the way that you can drop and i can feel your hands flow down my back and i can sense your body on the attack the only way that i’ll be down just throw our bodies to the ground

06. MAYBE SOMEDAY
when did i lose it i used to have the things to fill it up again back and forth illusion it wasn’t all that bad but i remember when catch me while i’m thinking about the time when i crossed this bridge to spend another long weekend with all the thoughts i could apprehend maybe someday you will find out i’ve got a song in my heart the melody’s your name you won’t find me on your front steps i’d rather stand in the crowd i’ll always be the same there’s another time that i could not lie but i did it anyway saw the look in your eyes the moment passed i let it slip away what was i thinking had my shot i needed an array with nothing to impress you i still wonder what i missed out on that day

07. PUT ON YOUR RED DRESS
i waited up til tuesday to hear the news you brought me two years and to betray the only on you can’t see the words might fail me but don’t mistake my dignity i’ve been overlooking all the things that keep me going put on your red dress cuz i’m gonna find you put on your red dress and i will find you i love it when you’re under another wave of blue so put on your red dress and there’s nothing that i won’t do take me like you want me kiss you while you’re grinning my heart sends a warning while i am off pretending here we are in my bed never mind the things left unsaid hold my hands to your head kiss me before we get to regret

08. TAKE MY TIME
do you remember when i was too young to know held you tight in the afterglow we had the whole world below wait for you to wake me up i will never leave these heights softly as you said goodnight are you waiting to ignite hold up baby this is madness i took a week so we could practice i will take my time have you looked in my eyes lately why can’t you see i’m breaking i promise you that i’ve tried take me now or lose me when you cannot find my heart i have too much to never start i’m breaking down while you’re falling apart your hands are shaking delicate touch them like they are my own i feel as if you’re made of stone leaving so much left unknown hold up baby this is madness a quick draw but i’m not the fastest please give me one last try we’ve worked too hard come too damn far and i won’t stop no matter how long it takes to cross that line i remember the last time that we kissed now look into my eyes because i insist tell me you could find another way to exist i can turn around but you’ll grab my wrist wipe the tears away with my calloused hands tell me once more this is not what you planned this story repeats i have seen it firsthand a long time coming but now i demand let’s stop this madness now

09. THE NEW WAVE
i’ll take a ride out on this new wave and i will only look back twice the first time will be to look for you and the last time will be to say goodbye we had a good thing while it lasted though i could see the end in sight just give me one more good reason cuz all i need is one more night where has it gone why can’t i find all of the words for this song i’ll take these two hands and i’ll build our future in the sand maybe i’ll find you where i’m going maybe i’ll see you when i leave the only thing that i’ll leave with you is all the love we made between

10. TODO UN POCO (instrumental)

11. WATCHING YOU GO
i know that you want me but it’s only a dream still you’ve got the greyest eyes that i’ve ever seen how can you mean so much to me you’ll never even see lived the lie before and it kills me again to know that i have made reality suspend the pieces of my heart it’s tearing me apart you’re eyes are so beautiful your lips are so sensual the hardest part of watching you go is i never got to say a word we’ll go back and forth again whisper in your ear what holds me back forever is my greatest fear that i will never live for me i will never say my peace i’ll just walk away but you’ll never admit and you’ll keep pulling me back but you won’t commit this is how it’s been the way that it will end