As far as he was concerned, he'd just invented what today is known as "multi-tracking." 
  

Adam Goldberg - who you'll likely recognize from his film roles in such movies as Saving Private Ryan and 2 Days in Paris, as well as his TV turns on shows Friends, Entourage, and the recently-debuted The Unusuals - spent much of his early music career (yes, he does have one - yes, you're missing out) recording his songs into a small tape recorder with quite the, er, innovative technique.

Much like many beginning musicians (although unknown to him at the time), Goldberg hit upon the idea of recording a guitar and vocal track, rewinding, playing back the track, and then recording more vocal and guitar onto a second tape recorder. 
   Shortly thereafter, he discovered the existence of the 4-track Tascam, and his recording career became a lot easier - but by that time, his fascination with the intricacies of recording and mixing had already taken hold.

"I started writing and quietly - or not so quietly, since the police were called at one point - recording music in 1993," Goldberg reminisces, "first alone, with the 4-tracks; then in a couple of incarnations of a band that had a very different sound - one that I'm glad I didn't pursue. I made demos, scrapped them, played gigs - but didn't quite feel like I had 'found' myself musically. The first time I did anything public with my music was when I composed score with the help of Steven Drozd (The Flaming Lips) for my movie, I Love Your Work, in 2003."

The songs on Goldberg's new solo release, Eros and Omissions - which he's presenting under the name LANDy - actually date back to 2002, when he met and began working with members of a band called The Black Pine; he'd met one of their bandmates, and soon found himself recording in their home studio every couple of weeks. Also in 2002, Goldberg and The Black Pine recorded "I'll Be Around" - which would become the first LANDy song - and around this same time is when Goldberg met the aforementioned multi-instrumentalist Drozd, and began collaborating with him, too.

Unfortunately, with this much going on - alongside his active acting career - Goldberg became overwhelmed, having recorded "so many recordings, he felt ready to retire," with some of those recordings containing as many as 50 tracks and overdubs.

So the LANDy recording project was shelved, without anything even being released, until Goldberg ran into Earlimart's Aaron Espinoza, who would prove to be the helpful catalyst that would see LANDy's songs turn into an actual album.
   "I met Aaron at a Mark Eitzel show," Goldberg says, "and then a couple months later, dumped six years of material on him. I owe a lot to Aaron, giving all of this a cohesion and having some really terrific ideas."
  
Goldberg essentially produced the album himself, since most of it was recorded and/or mixed by him in "some form or another," as he puts it; but he also credits several other collaborators with the album's successful completion.

"Everyone really contributed a lot," he confirms, "I recorded some on my own, some with The Black Pine kids. Steven Drozd was instrumental - ouch, pun - on helping with arrangements on songs he played on. Trent Bell, who recorded Steven and me, was instrumental in getting the sound I was looking for on those tracks. In addition to helping make sense of reams of material and really channeling my rough mixes and ideas, Aaron recorded "BFF!" from the ground up as well as most of "To No One In Particular" and "Your Words Not Mine. " Andrew Lynch helped out with these as well."

As far as his own songwriting goes, Goldberg writes where he can, and records where he needs to.  "I never wrote a song in a trailer (on set) or anything," he reflects, "definitely some hotel rooms - that sounds romantic and pretentious, but true. Truth is I've probably spent more time playing music than acting, if you were to add up the months - since at most I probably only act for half of the year."

And although he flew to Oklahoma specifically to record with Drozd, he prefers to stick close to home.  "I'm only a gypsy by default," he says, "I'm not a big traveler, and I'm prone to motion sickness. But I lived in New York where some of the home recording stuff was recorded, then of course L.A. - my hometown - and I did travel expressly to record with Steven, although as I recall, it was a very turbulent flight."

Even if he is asked to trek across the country again to make LANDy work, it sounds like Goldberg is prepared to do just that - even if it'll take some determined mind-over-matter effort.

"There's definitely more LANDy to come," Goldberg says, "I'd like to do something in a finite setting and timeframe, so I never have to make sense of six years of stuff ever again.  That said, I seem to have a penchant for getting sentimentally attached to demos, then trying to salvage some part of them, and making Aaron make it sound like a bunch of other stuff that was recorded half in a studio and half in my bathroom," he laughs.

As far as touring, Goldberg says "maybe" - if he can defeat his motion sickness and fear of flying. In the meantime, he's put a band together to start playing "within walking distance" - but the tour bus may be stopping by to pick him up sooner than he might expect.

"Believe it or not," he concludes, "and I've always wanted to say this - I think I, and LANDy, are developing a following in Turkey. So..."

Follow LANDy from Turkey - or anywhere else - at www.landytheband.com.