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Sunset Blvd. Records Presents

The digital premiere of the 1994 Human Drama EP (originally on Projekt Records)

1. It Is Fear
2. Breathe
3. Tired
4. Sad I Cry
5. Remember Well
6. Solitude IV
7. White River
8. The Waiting Hour (once again)

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FEBRUARY 10TH ON ALL DIGITAL PLATFORMS

Johnny Indovina: To bridge the gap between Pinups, which was all cover songs, and Songs of Betrayal, we recorded this EP. I love that we made a second attempt at “The Waiting Hour” and got it right, thanks to Mark Balderas’s beautiful musical arrangement! We already had the concept for Songs of Betrayal and its many, many songs, and we thought this would be a nice sample of what was to come. It also gave me a chance to finally record “White River”, a song that was intended to be on Feel, and “Breathe”, one that wasplanned for The World Inside.

All Music Guide review by Ned Raggett: A year before Songs of Betrayal appeared, Human Drama released this pleasant stopgap EP that managed to look both forward and to the past at the same time, succeeding in both cases. Four excellent songs that eventually turned up on Songs of Betrayal first surfaced here -- "It Is Fear," "Remember Well," and the quite wonderful "Sad I Cry" and "Tired." The instrumental "Solitude IV" (the other four songs with similar titles are on Songs of Betrayal as well) and two otherwise unavailable tunes, the fragile then surging "Breathe" and the sweeping, strong "White River," make up the bulk of Human Drama. However, the true highlight is right at the end -- a fantastic reworking of Feel's dramatic centerpiece,"The Waking Hour (Once Again)." Arranged for piano, strings, and flute, it's quite beautiful, Indovina's singing tender but no less captivating.

THANK YOU MEXICO CITY!

For making "Five Nights on Insugentes" a great success!

Thanks also to our sponsors SCHECTER GUITAR RESEARCH, SE ELECTRONICS, D'ADDARIO STRINGS, and to La Piedad Live Music for hosting our enent.

FIVE NIGHTS ON INSURGENTES

The idea: “After the Trilogy concert at the Metropolitan, we spent a lot of time thinking about what we would like to present next to Mexico,” said Human Drama singer and songwriter Johnny Indovina. “I told the band how enjoyable the intimacy of My Bag of Secrets book presentations was. The small theater really made me feel in touch with each person, and reinforced something that I’ve always felt - it’s all about contact with the individual listeners.”

“We had done all of the big venues in Mexico City, and they were fantastic,” continued Indovina, “but could we get the full band concert into a more intimate setting and still make it feasible?” Then out of nowhere I saw a title in my mind – ‘Five Nights on Insurgentes’. Which fit really well with the Human Drama documentary ‘Seven Days in Mexico’!

I then recalled that many years ago the Clash had bypassed playing one large New York City concert, and instead performed 17 nights at the smaller Bond’s Casino venue. So my idea crystalized into five nights in a row at one place, and we found the perfect spot, the 350 seat La Piedad.

The wrap up: It’s hard to believe that our “Five Nights on Insurgentes “ has concluded. Seems like we just arrived and started rehearsing and now it’s done.

I will say something here, and I believe that I speak for everyone in the band. This was a week that we will never, ever forget. We hope that all who attended will feel the same way… Because that was our intention.

A very special thing that happened during this week, was that the eight people that you saw on stage in the current incarnation of Human Drama , had never before played on the same stage. Yet, by the end of the five days, we were absolutely a “band”. And that is really an incredible thing. Thank you Steve Fuxan, Timothy Grove, Greg Collister, Dulce Luna, Julieta Nava, and Alexandra Tischendorf.

I want to take a moment and thank our very special guests, Michael Ciravolo, Salvador Moreno, and Jamie Chavez . Ending the final two nights with Michael Ciravolo , a founding member of Human Drama on stage with us, was very very special.

I hope everyone recorded Salvador from La Castaneda’s vocal performance on “Who By Fire” Saturday night, because it was very, very cool , and he put his vibe all over it! I hope to see him in Los Angeles this week.

And Jaime Chavez of El Clan, what a fantastic job you did on “Quiet Desperation“, and handling the surprise performance of Bob Dylan’s “Knocking on Heaven‘s door“ that I threw at everybody with no notice ha ha ha , great job, Jaime.

This event could not have happened without Leonardo Treviño, who put the entire plan together with great assistance from Aida of La Piedad. Thank you, Leonardo and Aida. Leonardo, I hope you get some sleep after we leave! Aida, thank you for accepting us in for this residency and experiencing this with us. The respect that you and your staff showed my band will never be forgotten.

Vamp on sound, Roy assisting everywhere, thank you both for making our life easier. I hope that we were not too demanding.

What a beautiful thing it was to watch Leonardo‘s student crew serving as bodyguards, assistants, attendants to the dressing room, and on and on and on. And on…. So thank you to Ander, Rod, Vanessa, Sofia, and Martin. Your help was so appreciated!

Another big thank you to the lovely Hammy for taking care of our merchandise sales, Johnathan who assisted her , and to our social media team of Susan Mederios and Eric Jeminez for all of their efforts.

Well, everyone, that’s all, I sure hope I haven’t left anybody out… I can’t tell you how happy we are that we did this event. Look for some video and some recordings down the line, and on behalf of Steve, Tim, Greg, Michael, Dulce, Jerry, Julieta and Alexandra, thank you for being a part of “ Five Nights on Insurgentes “.

Love,

Johnny

LATEST RELEASES

TEN SMALL FRACTURES

Link to all digital platforms!

2023 brought Human Drama- Ten Small Fractures, on the Bob Frank Entertainment Label. Ten Small Fractures is comprised of reworkings of ten previously released Human Drama songs, re-arranged and re-recorded utilizing only piano, violin, flute, classical guitar, muted bass, and vocal. Spurred by one of the most powerful ever Human Drama acoustic concerts in 2019, Johnny Indovina and Mark Balderas clearly saw that their songs and the words took on a different, and in some cases, more intense power in this format. Work immediately started on Ten Small Fractures, and it will now add another chapter to the legacy of a band that insisted on evolving, exploring, and refusing to ever make the same album twice.

Joining Johnny Indovina ( vocal, nylon string acoustic, muted bass) and Mark Balderas (Piano) are Gerardo Pozos (violin), Lyn Bertles (violin, viola), Claudia Gonzales (flute), Paul Pate (flute), Richard Lo Guercio (nylon string acoustic), Timothy Grove (nylon string acoustic), Steve Fuxan (muted bass), and Steve Caton (nylon string acoustic).

1. I BLEED FOR YOU 2. DYING IN A MOMENT OF SPLENDOR 3. TEARS

4. LOOK INTO A STRANGER’S EYES 5. MY SKIN. 6. THE WAYS AND THE WOUNDS. 7. BLUE 8. VOICES 9. FATHER SING 10. DEATH OF AN ANGEL

Produced by Johnny Indovina

Piano arrangements by Mark Balderas

Mixed by Mark Lonsway

BLURRED IMAGES

The album represents the evolution of music and life lessons of Johnny Indovina both as an artist and a person. Johnny's songs are reflective of his life and the world around him. Music can be as therapeutic to the artist as it is to the listener, lyrically and musically. Albums can be both a timestamp and a soundtrack to our lives depending on what we are going through at that particular moment. Where we find solace is that virtual companionship and comradeship that we get when we relate to such music and either find justification for our feelings or advice for our direction. Along with Johnny Indovina, Blurred Images features original members Mark Balderas on Keyboards and Steve Fuxan on Bass guitar, along with guitarist Timothy Grove and Drummer Greg Collister. Also appearing on the album is original Human Drama Guitarist Michael Ciravolo, Pinky Turzo on Backing vocals, Christie Guerrero on Backing vocals and Gerardo Pozos on Violin.

Blurred Images is another Human Drama concept album, created by a band and a songwriter that prefer to work in this manner. See “The World Inside”, “Songs of Betrayal”, “Broken Songs for Broken People”, and Johnny’s solo album “Trials of The Writer”.

…Johnny Indovina speaking about Blurred Images:

“It was a section of my life that I tried to forget. Then one day I heard a piece of music. I started to speak over this music. I dreamed of the mountains...I said. Two minutes later I realized I had said goodbye to something that I hardly ever (maybe never) consciously let surface. So, I brought something to a final resting place? No… I finally fully admitted that it had been lying beside every moment of my life since 1996. It kind of sat there adjusting things, so to speak. So, I looked it in the eye, and said “Farewell”. But it couldn’t simply end there. It was now time to let every aspect of that time in my life, all the little moments that contributed to the monumental event that would guide my life from far beneath the surface, to the surface.

So, I strategically next sang about a beautiful night on Delaney Street in 1993. Beautiful. Look what I found. Something beautiful and miles away from my ability to feel now. Then it got dark. No surprise. I was ready for it, and the conversation was more easy this time. I guess this story may make a cohesive piece of music...another concept album. So, I continued the story. King of Kings, One More Time Around the Lake, Into Our Escape, Another Crash, Let the Memories Live Here, Sometimes, I’m Looking, and February 10th. All pieces of a whole. There are many layers in responsibility in most situations, and layers of responsibility to the damages suffered. My goal was that this album be an examination of a relationship on all levels”.

Blurred Images is an examination and acknowledgement of an impacting few years from an artist that, like all of us, is finding his own way in life.

BROKEN SONGS for broken people

HUMAN DRAMA BROKEN SONGS COVER HIGHRES.jpg

The enthusiasm of the fans and the successful first experiment in resurrecting Human Drama in the studio with “The Liar Inside” led to Indovina diving into an intense journey of songwriting, the result being “Broken Songs For Broken People.” The album delivers the essence of what Human Drama has always been about: emotional songs that veer between those brimming with delicate beauty and those that are piercingly fraught with tension and pain.

Indovina invited many familiar collaborators from albums past back into the fold for the new project. He’s joined by original member’s bassist Steve Fuxan, guitarist Michael Ciravolo and Charlie Bouis (who contributed some engineering and mixing on the album), all veterans of a substantial portion of Human Drama’s output. On drums is Rob Cournoyer (another native of New Orleans) who also appeared on “Cause and Effect” and Sound of the Blue Heart “Beauty?”. And of course original member keyboardist Mark Balderas, who has been such a pivotal part of the band’s sound through all their best work, provides stunning work on the piano, Hammond B3, Mellotron and Wurlitzer. Also featured are Curt Harding, who appeared on both “The World Inside” and “Pin-ups,” contributes bass on “Trying to Make Sense of It All.” Vocalist Shea Alexander nails a stunning vocal on her duet with Indovina, “Love Lies Still,” which also features bassist Chris Severin, a talented New Orleans-based musician who’s worked with the likes of the Neville Brothers and Dr. John plus veteran ace Carlo Nuccio, a New Orleans-based drummer who’s worked on an impressive string of landmark albums including Emmylou Harris’ “Red Dirt Girl” and Tori Amos’ “Under the Pink.” Sound of the Blue Heart members Timothy Grove who plays guitar on “A Long Time Ago”, “Love Lies Still” and “Trying to Make Sense of It All” which also includes drummer Peter Straub. The strings have returned, exquisitely performed on various tracks by Emmanuel Lauren, Guierrmo Gutierrez, Lyn Bertles, and Alicia Enstrom. Indovina leads the charge as always, and from the chill-inducing opening chords of the title song it’s clear that Human Drama is back in full creative force.