Among the participants lending their perspective to the reissued project is an actual public figure (Kato Kaelin), best known for his testimony in a mid-1990s “trial of the century.” Kaelin offered praise for the project—and further contextualized himself—in a new interview conducted by album lyricist, Brad Forenza.
Watch Kaelin’s video interview about the project here:
“Everyone should listen to The Public Figure Songbook, not just because the K-Train is included in a reissued ‘Batteries and Bottled Water’ track, but because Shane’s tunes and Brad’s words are snappy, scrappy, and catchy. Like the concept of the project itself, the perspective is uniquely American,” Kaelin said, of his time with production.
“Our songs represent the sweet and sour slices of American Pie,” observed Bordeau, the album’s composer. “While every track is ultimately creative nonfiction (how could we really know what Baby Jessica was thinking at the bottom of that well?), Brad and I believe that most listeners would remember these sensational flashpoints, and why they were captivated by them. And who doesn’t remember Kato? He was the jester in an otherwise somber court,” Bordeau mused.
“Years ago, Shane and I tried to write a song from what we imagined Kato’s perspective to be, but it never materialized. How serendipitous—all these years later—to work with Kato himself?” Forenza added. “In our reissued concept album, Shane and I also had the privilege of closing the loop on other unrealized ideas from our initial release. I think we needed the distance between then and now to better understand the perspectives we were trying to write from.”
Listen to Kaelin’s contributions to the project here:
https://publicfiguresongbook.bandcamp.com/album/the-public-figure-songbook
Kaelin’s contributions—and his interview regarding his experiences as a public figure—time well with the album’s broad release across major music streaming platforms (e.g., Bandcamp, ITunes, Spotify, etc.) and the anticipation of more multimedia content to come.