Dolorean 'Outlast' Music Business Woes on 'The Unfazed'

With the music business not exactly in the best shape, it's hard for some musicians to maintain their usually sunny dispositions. Case in point, Al James, the mastermind of Portland, Ore.'s Dolorean, who became quite disillusioned with his current profession. His rather disparaging sentiments shine through on 2007's 'You Can't Win,' an album he admits was a rather trying one.

"I don't think I was ever throwing in the towel, but there were some really low points after that record," James tells Spinner. "In the end, I think it sold as all the other ones, but I was paying too much attention of stuff going around. I was letting the business side really get at me. I took a longer break -- I needed to slow down and think about 'if you're going to do this, how are you going to do this?'"

Thus, James and the rest of the Dolorean gang returned on Jan. 18 with their fourth studio album, 'The Unfazed,' another exquisite blend of country folk a la 'Harvest'-era Neil Young, but with James's voice still commanding each song in its own unique right. Tracks like opener 'Thinskinned' and the title cut seem to hint at James' thoughts about giving up and ultimately rejecting those ideas -- great news for fans of quality folk rock.

"For me, it was a little bit of a state of mind that I needed to get into, to get creating again," he says. "This was a way of focusing on the efforts. The idea about being unfazed and sticking to your guns; it became a helpful way of creating out of that spot."

James, currently a copywriter at an advertising agency, first caught the attention of critics in 2004, when Dolorean released 'Violence in the Snowy Fields,' a gorgeous collection of songs from start to finish that might've been buried among the countless Ryan Adams and Shins albums. While 'You Can't Win' seemed to be more of a downer, 'The Unfazed' finds James optimistic and, well, unfazed.

"If you had to encapsulate the record or where my head's been for the last few years, the best way to do that would be the bridge in ['The Unfazed']," he says. "Ultimately, it's a positive statement, one of outlasting and toughening up a bit."

Dolorean Perform 'The Unfazed'

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