NOME SANE? with Teddy Kumpel, Matt Miller and Bob Stander

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This record is a true labor of love. In fall of 2019 Matt asked me to help setup his new home studio. In November we invited Bob over to test out Matt’s new setup. The first time we played it was so much fun we just kept doing it and the collaboration morphed into something we didn’t expect. I was just thinking about playing things Matt would like. His sensibility tends to be more harmonious and beautiful than mine. I’m a bit more of a weirdo with a wide swath. Bob is as diverse of a Zappa influenced rocker as you will ever find, a truly unique person and musician. As we kept at it something emerged that was a ‘sum is greater than the parts’ feeling. I always wanted to be in a band like that. There’s a safety in playing with trusted friends who are only shooting for the best thing you can do as team. That’s like lubrication for magic to happen.Something comes out of your instrument that surpasses your intentions. It’s rare that music happens this way in our worlds. Very quickly it became clear that this trio needed to make a record as a band. But, what to call it?

I started making music under the band name Nome Sane? In 1988 when I moved back to NYC after college. Matt and I have been best friends since we were 16 so it was only natural that he was the first drummer in Nome Sane?. We’ve played music together on and off for close to 40 years. Bob and I met in 2010 and have been best buddies ever since. It seems like we’ve been friends way longer than we actually have. So, we all love each other a lot and we love making music together and have similar senses of humor and musical taste. There’s always a lot of laughing and crying and eating, not necessarily in that order. Half of these songs we wrote together in Matt’s home studio, Machine City Recording. Then the pandemic hit and locked us in our homes. The other songs I wrote at home and we got together to record them with masks on or I fleshed them out with Matt remotely and Bob came in remotely at the last minute to save the day.

All 3 of us are working people, serving other people’s music as musicians, producers and engineers, so it’s nice to have something we can call our own that we love doing.