Former Apples In Stereo Member Goes Solo

Despite a propitious beginning, the rigors and temptations of touring took their toll on McDuffie who was abruptly and publically dismissed from the band after blowing a tambourine cue onstage in Albuquerque.

Cast out of the Elephant 6 garden, McDuffie packed up his tambourine and retreated to Chicago where he eventually began work on Hollows and Rounds, his debut album as Whitejacket due April 3rd. While the album's latest single "Medinah" shows the influence of Their Satanic Majesties Request and Magical Mystery Tour, McDuffie admits, "I fear the chorus may owe a little debt to The Cardigans."

Of the song's title, McDuffie explains, "Medinah Temple is a landmark Chicago building commissioned by the Shriners, but the name also graces at least one local auto repair shop and a beauty parlor, so I'm not exactly sure where I saw it first. Somehow it seized my imagination as the perfect name for the sort of beguiling but difficult woman I was trying to write about � a lover who simultaneously fills you with fears of abandonment and fantasies of escape."

As for the other songs on Hollows and Rounds, McDuffie claims the influence of many obscure artists from the sixties and seventies such as Margo Guryan and Billy Nicholls, but cheerfully admits the obvious: "The Beatles are my first love. These days, I feel like indie types demand a certain literary seriousness from songwriters, but Paul McCartney's example reminds me that a song doesn't need to be absolutely sincere or lyrically sublime to succeed. It's okay to occasionally indulge yourself in a silly love song."

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