November 7, 2008

An important update on the status of Hugh's solo album has been posted on the HPN message board.

Click here to read

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Hugh discusses his plans for a solo album in an interview for this site:

The news is that, you know, initially, we were hoping to get things underway while I was on my quote hiatus between Lestat San Francisco and New York, but we all went into rehearsals so quickly after that that there was no time. Immediately following Lestat, I started the um long process of going through music and sorting through songs and, um, I'd say out of, um, out of maybe I'm gonna say thirteen because that's a good number for a CD, I have about four or five that I'm really happy with. But it's a much more difficult job picking songs than I ever would've thought or dreamed about. And I'm listening to a lot new songs and I'm going through a lot older songs and seeing if there's new way to treat then and, of course, "Company" came up and that took me out of the City for six weeks. But, even while I was here in Seattle, I have been doing work over the phone with people from Sony and actually went into the studio here and did a demo.

And, so, it's an ongoing process and I'm really hoping that upon my return to New York, that I can really buckle down and, especially before the holidays hit us...because Thanksgiving's practically here at the time we're doing this...um, well, Halloween and Thanksgiving...and then it'll be Christmas. Um, so, uh, I don't have a definitive release date. But I'm hoping that in the next, you know, six weeks or so we can nail down the list of songs. And then, of course, they have to be orchestrated. And then, you know, going into the studio to record them. Then they get mixed and, you know, that's a whole other process doing a cd.

At the time that, um, Kris Chenoweth was doing her CD for Sony, we were room-mates...this is a long time ago in California...and I remember she was doing a tv show and flying back and forth to record and then flying to do the photo-shoot and, you know, you have to do your album cover and the liner notes and all that stuff so it's a big deal and you want to do it right. You know I held off...as you know from other talks, I think...I've held off on doing anything like this for many, many years because I thought if I do it, I really want to do something artistic. I didn't want to just take a bunch of, you know, my audition songs or things, you know, song that I love to sing and slap it on a CD and expect people to, you know, to get something out of it...that seemed like more of a vanity project and I really...I love all different kinds of music and I want to...I want do something that, you know, thirty years from now, I can look back on and go, "Oh, you know, I'm really glad I did that." And, you know, with respect to different aspects of my training, you know, at school, and some of my classical roots.

And, so, we're taking our time. Someone...somebody actually said, you, know and I think this was a brilliant quote. Because I was like, "We've got to get going! We've going to get going on the CD! We've got to get going!" And I was really pushing the "Hurry Up, Hurry Up" button. And they said "You took eight months out of your life to work on Lestat and playing Lestat and the role of Lestat. Why would you do anything less for being yourself? You know, Hugh Panaro's CD. This is...this is something that you need to spend, you know, quality time on, not just rushing into it." And I thought...and that made me relax and I was like, "Oh, that's true!"

~ from an HPN interview recorded in Seattle, October 26, 2006

 

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Following the Broadway Musicals of 1938 concert on March 26, 2007, Hugh Panaro recorded the following video for the site.  He said he'd welcome any song suggestions for his CD.