On the surface, HeadEye is the alter-ego of veteran keyboardist-vocalist Jason Hedrington.
But HeadEye is more than just a curious visitor from the Tralfamadorian System. HeadEye is a long-gestating music project, space rock opera, and concept album which have been coalescing in Hedrington’s brain for the better part of three decades. And now, the alien has made first contact.
“Shadyside,” the first single from the forthcoming HeadEye album Earth Girls, recently arrived online. The song clocks in at eight minutes and four seconds — an admittedly gutsy move for a lead single.
“We wanted to come out swinging. We wanted to make a statement right away, we’re not effing around sort of statement; having that bravado to be eight minutes, orchestration, choirs. Basically it was our wakeup call moment,” Hedrington said during a Nov. 30 interview.
Hedrington, of Bethlehem, said he initially recorded a demo version of “Shadyside” in 2005. The demo was passed around among friends, then “disappeared for a long time.” About two years ago, Hedrington began incorporating the song into this solo performances and decided to revisit the track.
“For me as an artist, I have found that what I need to get myself and my ego, quite frankly, out of a song, is to write and put it away for a couple of years so I can get to that point where I can come back to it and start messing with it. I definitely have that thing when I first start writing a song I’m too close to it,” Hedrington said. “I have to distance myself from a song first before I can really get in there and let it become what it needs to be become.”
Hedrington — who has been a fixture of the Lehigh Valley music circuit for more than 20 years — handles keyboard duties for Easton-based rock band Roi and the Secret People and jam rock trio The Gonzo Project. He also performs regularly with local music ensemble Jakopa’s Punch.
Like many of his compositions, the multilayered “Shadyside” is built on an autobiographical foundation — this one about a relationship gone sour — reinforced with Hedrington’s signature sarcasm and whimsical touch. “Shadyside” features lead vocals by Cathie Massaro, with additional vocals by Trinity Affuso, Sylvia Popichak, Payton Renee, and Sarah Stoll. (Rounding out the recording are bassist Shawn Cavanaugh, flutist Emma Ackerman, drummer Zach Martin, bassoonist Silagh White, and guitarist Erik Santana.)
“Lyrically when it started it was a little more sappy and sad because the inspiration did all start from a true story and then I let the imagination go from there,” Hedrington said. “I saw there was an opportunity there. I’m like OK, this person who has wronged me in this life, literally lives in a place called Shadyside. This is too good to let go, this has to be used.”
Attentive listeners will spot a musical nod to Gary Numan’s pop hit “Cars” woven into the mix of “Shadyside,” as well as a nod to the Police’s “Every Breath You Take.”
“Growing up even as a small child in the ‘70s, it was always a lot of the keyboard stuff I heard on the radio that popped out at me,” Hedrington said. “In my middle school, high school years, I fell in love with Pink Floyd, art rock and prog rock. So the idea of an eight-minute single, to me, was natural because I grew up listening to 15-minute long Pink Floyd ‘Echoes’ and Yes.”
HEAD START
Hedrington began working on the project with local music producer John Paul DeBard, of Bootleg Sound, about a year-and-a-half ago, writing music and fleshing out the HeadEye character and its backstory. However, the genesis of HeadEye — the character and the name —go back further.
The initial concept of an outer space observer living among humans came from a novel Hedrington began working on while in college. The name “Headeye” originated in 2002 during Hedrington’s four-month tenure as a member of former Bethlehem-based punk outfit Slippery Cup.
“One day the drummer was looking at me and made this offhand comment and said, ‘You play like a Jedi. Your last name is is Hedrington; I’m going to call you HeadEye.’ And it stuck,” Hedrington said. “So everybody’s known me as Headeye forever.”
The collection of songs that are making up Earth Girls have been formulating and taking shape even as Hedrington continues to perform solo shows in between his various band gigs. The album features a who’s-who of Lehigh Valley musicians, as well as several of Hedrington’s current bandmates.
“A large part of the initial concept was that we have the Lehigh Valley Music Awards and certain people get their due and recognition; this was my way of saying, hey, this what I consider the Jason Hedrington Lehigh Valley All-Stars,” he said. “These are the people who are not necessarily on people’s radar but need to be on their radar. Part of that concept was let me feature who I consider some of the best artists in the Lehigh Valley.”
“Shadyside“ is the launch of a multifaceted Headeye marketing campaign — with merchandise on the way and the full-length album set to land in mid-2020. The follow-up single to “Shadyside” is slated for a February release.
Inspired by the works of Kurt Vonnegut and Douglas Adams (specifically the latter’s “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”), Hedrington began writing HeadEye as a musical but eventually abandoned that path. He re-embraced the idea as other musicians began collaborating with Hedrington on Earth Girls and remarked how much the character, and songs, were calling out to be a musical. Hedrington is hoping to stage a musical about Headeye at Bethlehem’s Touchstone Theater in 2021.
“We’re definitely dreaming big and seeing where all these things can go,” Hedrington said.