February 8, 2011-
Louis Schwartz, whom alluded to Sitting Pretty possibly being his last demo indefinitely, confirmed on Monday that SP will in fact be it for some time. Louis previously had announced the release of an earlier demo called Thinking of spring about a year ago, but pulled out for unknown reasons at the time. “I liked the idea, the atmosphere of the record, but there were too many things I thought I could improve, I’m not a perfectionist, but I like things to be a certain way. By the time I summoned up the interest to revamp the work, I was moving on to Sitting Pretty. Then I decided, maybe I was through for a while.” he explained. “Writing music is a seriously difficult and honest activity. Like, you wouldn’t want the public or your fan-base in on your personal affairs with your girlfriend or your family, for example, but that’s really what your doing, you’re bleeding, ripping open scars that have barely healed and it takes its toll on you. Then one day you wake up and you just can’t do it anymore, you can’t access that part of you, because you’re deteriorating from the stress it causes.”
“I would like to keep playing music, and I’ve learned to accept what I’ve written in a neutral aspect, so it doesn’t hurt to play those tunes like it hurts to find a new lyric or statement or sound-go digging.” he spoke openly. Louis recently formulated a new group together with keyboardist Eric Tsavdar, called Dorothy. “Working with Eric is a lot of fun, sometimes I have a riff, or he has a melody; sometimes we have whole songs, other times we have nothing. But predominantly, the most exciting aspect is that I share writing responsibilities with him, Eric wouldn’t let me beat myself up over something like I would writing alone stewing in my own discord. I’m learning to discuss those hard topics with a newer twist, so there’s less opportunity to wallow in a feeling. But for the most part, I just don’t have to always touch up on me, like I feel the need to do as a solo artist, there’s just as good a chance we could write about someone’s day on the subway in New York, as there is a chance of it being about something in my own life. That’s a lot of freedom.”
“I wanted Sitting Pretty to be a celebration of those who have influenced me. I wanted it to be like, hey we had great times, we had horrible times, but we still have time. I even wanted my ex to like it, you know? None of that stupid, let’s see how I can smear things around some more mentality, I wanted her to say, I don’t know how to feel about you still, but hey this was a pretty good gesture, the songs were in good taste. I wanted it to click with my friends, and my family. But things fell apart in the middle and the record still had that feel, but it was marred, with the loss of a friendship. I don’t really like those songs now. There’s a few on there I’m really proud of, but it literally went from not being like every other demo to being the epitome record. It was a huge disappointment in my book.”
So whats next for Louis?
“We’re currently working in the studio at DSU for material for a Dorothy release. It’s not a race, and I have no idea when any one thing will be released at this point, but we have a lot of great ideas, a few finished tracks, and some working in progress, so in my book were making great progress. I also hope to work on a few tracks with lead singer of Transposed, Mike Coffin, at Sound Barn Studio. I’ve even thought about a one-off project writing a couple new songs that have little or nothing to do with me, I thought Anthologia would be a great title for the idea. And anyone who is a fan of my solo work or work as the Lions with drummer Rob Colone, can still see us play. So it’s really not the end. I just need a long break from me.”
On February 10, 2011, Louis announced he was through writing demos, and stated Sitting Pretty would get shelved, with only a handful of tracks possibly being leaked. Louis’ solo career spanned nearly five years.
