A rediscovered pair of tracks recorded nearly 40 years ago by Highland Park musician Rob Stepen will be officially released on vinyl during a charity event on Oct. 6.
The record-release event will run from 5-9 p.m. at Nellie’s Gastropub, 180 N Smith St., Palatine. Donations will go to Joey’s Song, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting epilepsy research and awareness.
The album was recorded and the tracks restored at Electrical Audio in Chicago, a studio that has seen hundreds of artists and bands including Beach Bunny, with the help of famous audio engineer Steve Albini, known for working with Nirvana and Cheap Trick among many others. Albini passed away in May.
Electrical Audio Engineer Lauren MacDonald described the album as ’80s rock — “post-Led Zeppelin but pre-hair metal” — with “raw rock grit” brought by Stepen. Music fans will likely enjoy the “presentation of the ’80s,” MacDonald said, made with the technology and audio fidelity of the modern era.
Stepen’s band, The Generations, includes a mixture of international touring musicians and music educators, with drummer Adam Grais, bassist Stacy McMichael, keyboardist Janet Jones, vocalist Monika Jedrzejek and guitarist Michael Kopstain.
Stepen works at a professional human resources company. Outside of work, though, he has been passionate about music since he was young. His family, always musically oriented, used to put on skits together. His mother played piano, accordion and sang, and his father played upright bass.
Stepen started out playing drums in the basement, but would eventually expand to bass, keyboard and guitar.
“My parents were the influence for myself, my brother and my sister. I got the music gene,” he said.
He’d go on to learn how to write his own music, leading him to a recording studio in 1985, where a young Stepen recorded two tracks, “Your Way,” and “Have you Seen My Heart.”
“After my session, the producer proudly hands me these two boxes of reel-to-reel tapes and goes, ‘Here you go, Rob, I’m so excited for you.’” he recalled. “I said, ‘What am I supposed to do with these? I don’t have a player.’”
The producer laughed it off, Stepen recalled, telling him he’d, “figure it out.”
It ended up taking longer than either expected. The reels sat in his attic lost among other memories for 38 years, until he stumbled upon them while searching through some boxes last year.
Finding the reels hit Stepen with a wave of nostalgia and excitement.
“It was like finding a time capsule of my past, and it really reignited this passion in me to share these pieces of music,” he said.
They were then mastered by Bob Weston at Chicago Mastering Services and the final product, “Alternate View,” was pressed into vinyl at Third Man Records in Detroit, which was founded by Jack White of the White Stripes.
Friends and family have been shocked hearing the story and listening to the recordings. Some have preferred the original 1985 version, others the new one. For Stepen, he finds something unique about each. He noted the reaction of a younger relative who said the ’80s are back in style for younger people. MacDonald, deeply involved with the indie music scene in Chicago, agreed.
“I see a lot of local bands and up-and-coming artists. The ’80s and ’90s are definitely circling back,” MacDonald said. “It’s a little less feel-good. There’s power and the grit you hear.”
The record-release party will feature a panel discussion about the process of bringing these tracks back to life, a live performance by The Generations, vinyl copies of the album and merchandise.
Donations will go to Joey’s Song, named in honor of Joey Gomoll, who died in 2010 before his fifth birthday from a form of epilepsy called Dravet Syndrome.
