Steve Drizos - i love you now leave me alone (2024)

Portland, Oregon-based musician/engineer/producer Steve Drizos, a professional touring musician for more than twenty seven years and studio owner, who can currently be found behind the drums for Jerry Joseph and The Jackmormons or helming the board at his SE Portland recording studio, The Panther, is gearing up to release his sophomore full-length album, ‘i love you now leave me alone’ (Cavity Search Records).

Having worked with countless artists at The Panther, including Patterson Hood (Drive-By Truckers), Debbi Peterson (The Bangles), Spencer Tweedy, Chris Funk (The Decemberists), and Scott McCaughey (R.E.M., Minus 5, The Young Fresh Fellows), as well as his wife, The Decemberists’ Jenny Conlee, Drizos is no stranger to both sides of the studio, culminating in his debut solo album, Axiom, which was released on Cavity Search Records in 2021. Written and recorded during the start of the pandemic, Axiom was Drizos’ chance to experiment in the studio and make a solo album, playing most of the instruments himself. However, with ‘i love you now leave me alone,’ he decided to demo everything and build a band around the songs, resulting in a powerful follow-up that finds the songwriter side of him growing and evolving, delivering another strong collection of eight powerful songs that find influence in 90s guitar-rock, pop, and folk.

“The song is written for my wife, though the names have been changed to protect the innocent. I started the song almost 20 years ago, shortly after we first met, and it took me this long to come up with a version I was happy with. The track features Todd Wright on guitar and backing vocals, Tim Murphy on bass and backing vocals, Jenny Conlee on keyboards, and Joe Mengis on drums. Recorded and mixed by Steve Drizos at The Panther, Portland, Oregon.” – Steve Drizos

“I approached the writing and the producing of the album with the idea of playing live shows in mind, which I did not do with ‘Axiom’. I hope that the live shows are a pretty close representation of what the album sounds like. Since I don’t really play live shows, at least as a band leader playing my songs, I’m not sure what to expect. I feel like I have found a great group of players that I feel really comfortable with, so I would love to bring these songs to a live audience.”