aaamusic | On 26, Jul 2011

From Dave Depper comes ‘The Ram Project’, a personal venture that saw him reconstruct Paul McCartney’s solo album ‘Ram’, piece by piece, at home by himself in 30 days. The multi-instrumentalist from Portland, Oregon will release the album on August 22^nd through City Slang.

Having previously recorded and toured the world with internationally-renowned artists (Jolie Holland, Mirah, The Decemberists) as well as beloved Portland institutions (Loch Lomond, Norfolk & Western, Musee Mecanique and Blue Giant), Depper felt that it was time that he recorded something of his own.

“I was in a rut,” Depper explains. “I’d played on and helped produce dozens of different records, but I’d had yet to follow through with completing anything of my own. I knew that I needed to do something – anything – to prove to myself that I was capable of finishing something that I’d started.”

Ready for a challenge, he decided to take on the craziest project he could think of: re-recording ‘Ram’ in 30 days.

Over the course of one month, in his spare bedroom, Depper began obsessively hacking away at the record, often working marathon 12-hour sessions at a time. He had a couple of guitars, a keyboard, a Rickenbacker bass, and a laptop. Lacking drums, he borrowed a kit from a friend and, having only one microphone, recorded each drum individually.

Adding to the fun, fellow Portlander Joan Hiller charmingly performed Linda McCartney’s prominent harmony vocals.To keep him on task, and to ensure that his peers would give him grief if he slacked, he started a blog and began posting each song as it was finished. And 31 days after recording began; ‘The Ram Project’ was finished.

Beautifully mixed as true to the original as possible by Beau Raymond (Devendra Banhart, Little Joy, Laura Gibson) and expertly mastered by Tony Lash (Elliott Smith, Death Cab for Cutie, Dandy Warhols), The Ram Project is almost eerie in its resemblance to Ram itself. “When I had it playing in the background in my house it was, at times, unnervingly like having the original on,” says Lash.

“At the end of the day,” Depper says, “I recorded this record for myself. It’s the definition of a labor of love. The last thing I expected was for it to be commercially released – I did it as a learning experience and ameans of breaking down a creative wall that I’d run into. I just hope that it’s as fun to listen to as it was to create.”

Listen to his version of ‘Too Many People’ here: http://soundcloud.com/cityslang/dave-depper-too-many-people