Forgive and Create

Most musicians give their fans some insight into what inspired each song they write. Some come from personal experience, others from a political perspective; but Thomas Dutton, the now sole member and brainchild of Forgive Durden, uses his love of musicals, the art of theater and the elements of music as the main ingredients that fueled his highly ambitious sophomore album "Razia's Shadow: A Musical." DIG caught up with Dutton while he was on tour driving through L.A. to talk about his newest creation.Dutton (vocals, guitar) spent his formative years starting a band with Thomas Hunter (guitar), Andy Mannino (drums) and Jesse Bauer (bass), and they called themselves Forgive Durden. This band made its first splash in the indie rock scene with its first full-length album "Wonderland" in 2006. But in January 2008, Dutton made an announcement that the three other members quit the band citing personal conflicts. Instead of folding up everything and calling it quits himself, which would seem like the logical thing if you're a musician standing alone after your unit leaves your side, Dutton reinvented his musical perception and dug deep to perfect a solo idea influenced by a childhood infatuation.

"It originally was going to be sort of a side project thing for me because I've always really liked musicals growing up but it ended up taking a little bit more energy and attention then I originally sort of planned which I was more then happy to give it, and it kind of took over my life in a good way," Dutton said. "I spent two years writing and recording it and I had the idea a few years ago and I just loved Disney movies and movies like 'Willy Wonka' and 'Moulin Rouge.'"

The story behind the 13-track musical is a world divided in two by an egotistical and powerful yet insecure angel, and after generations of darkness, the world is eventually brought back together by the love and sacrifice of a couple brave enough to fulfill their destinies. It's a fairy tale that Dutton calls a "creative story that I came up with. I wanted to have some twists and turns and really kind of cliché musical moments."

Opening track "Genesis" features Casey Crescenzo of The Dear Hunter's high-pitched vocals over the top of heavy percussion, pulsating drums and soft strings. The next track, "The Missing Piece," has Dutton as Ahrima and Lizzie Huffman of Man in the Blue Van as Nidria. The two perform a back and forth duet with dramatic vocals surrounded by an urgency that is not found on the rest of the album.

Max Bemis of Say Anything plays Barayas the Spider on "The Spider and the Lamps" which displays intricately played drumming and violins that weave into symphonic sounding harmonizing that also features a piano line reminiscent of early jazz. Chris Conley of Saves the Day plays Toba the Tura and gives "Toba the Tura" lullaby sounding vocals mixed deep and rich piano playing under and umbrella of light percussion.

Dutton co-wrote the album with his brother Paul and then the next step in the process was finding characters to cast so Dutton enlisted members from other bands like Panic at the Disco, Saves the Day, Say Anything, The Dear Hunter, Portugal the Man and The Hush Sound, among others as guest vocalists. Rudy Gajadhar of Gatsby's American Dream laid the drums on all the tracks and Aaron Weiss of mewithoutYou narrates the story.

"Pretty much all of them I have known through touring with Forgive Durden," Dutton explained. "The only person I didn't really know was Chris Conley from Saves the Day. I knew the drummer so that's how I got a hold of him, but pretty much everybody else were people I toured with or worked with in some sense before, so I really wanted to use people in my community as far as music and have people who I'm friends with, but also people whose voices and musicianship I really respected."

When asked if there was a particular musician who was great to work with, Dutton cites one singer who he's looked up to before he even started his music career.

"The most exciting one for me was Chris Conley because I didn't really know him so it was sort of this fan boy kind of thing where I was a little star struck," Dutton said.

Forgive Durden just wrapped its fall with Steel Train and Dear and the Headlights, and the audience saw all the songs from "Razia's Shadow" performed lived except for one which Dutton says would be a bit difficult to recreate live.

"The minute-long acapella interlude that's 15 tracks of me singing over the top of myself," Dutton said. "It has sort of weird robotic harmonies that a good acapella group could do but I probably couldn't do it with the people I have."

With "Razia's Shadow: A Musical" being received to predominantly good reviews, Forgive Durden's fan base might be wondering about the future of the band and whether or not it will stay as just Dutton as the sole member or if it will again be a full band. But Dutton isn't rushing in to things. Just as "Razia's Shadow" evolved from a simple idea, to a full fledged indie-rock musical, Dutton is just taking things as they come and enjoying his time in the band.

"It's not permanent for now, you know with the other guys leaving I didn't want to rush into any sort of permanent thing just because it's very different to meet someone and get along with them, but I hope to have a permanent line up sometime, but I just want to take it slow and have it be a natural growth and relationship with people and sort of take it from there.