Results 1 to 6 of 6

Thread: Overworld Dreams

  1. #1

    Overworld Dreams

    Is there anybody here on PE who has knowledge about current status of this excellent US progressive band (they started to work on their debut album and... disappeared suddenly)?
    Last edited by Guess Who; 10-14-2017 at 02:18 PM.

  2. #2
    As far as I remember, popular artist Ed Unitsky was going to make a booklet for their debut CD "Voyage".

    https://myspace.com/overworlddreams/music/songs

  3. #3
    Quote Originally Posted by Guess Who View Post
    Is there anybody here on PE who has knowledge about current status of this excellent US progressive band (they started to work on their debut album and... disappeared suddenly)?
    I probably have more knowledge of the band than anyone. I'm Ken Walker, keyboardist and one of the vocalists and writers in the band. Due to personal issues, we hit a very rough patch years ago and stopped work on the album. Unlike some bands, this had nothing to do with core personalities, as all of us (myself, Chris Parsons, Randy Sandmann, and my brother Steve Wells of metal band The Hixon) are still in contact despite being apart for many years. Life simply intruded on the best laid plans and sidelined the project. I became involved with George Johnson, who toured with McCoy Tyner for three years. It's rather complicated as to the circumstances, as core members left to complete educations, a marriage broke up...you probably get the idea. But...

    ...after years of being apart--with a hundred stories to be told--bassist Chris Parsons contacted me again in November, 2017 with an interesting proposal (despite an earlier rumor, he is not related to Alan Parsons. However, his father was in Bill Haley and the Comets. His father played the iconic rockabilly solo in Rock Around the Clock!). Chris, Randy and I have a mutual friend who writes excellent music. Chris wanted to revive Overworked Dreams as a full collaborative project with writing from myself, Chris, Randy, and a few other musician friends. In his words, it was time to make a mark. We found every old track, hard drive, scarp of paper, anything that had the music. We had recut the tracks Child of Dreams and Voyage to Castilia years ago, with guest musicians cutting individual tracks, including monster fusion guitarist Scott McGill (Finneus Gage, Ecolyn) and Shawn Christie from Zeroesque contributing. All of us lived within 15 minutes of each other at one time. I had even wanted to contact Annie Haslam to see if she would be willing to perform on a track, since she only lives about an hour from us. I just invested close to $30,000 in my home and built a recording studio for this project. We did have a contract with Ed Unitsky for artwork, half of which I paid for already years ago. We plan on having a website up and running in the near future. We are determined to not let anything stop us from getting this project completed. We have about two albums worth of material to record as of today.

    We are based in Southern New Jersey. Our state has a rich music history, from Frank Sinatra to Whitney Houston to Frankie Valli to Bon Jovi to Bruce Springsteen to Cinderella. I'd like Overworked Dreams to be the first progressive band from the state to make some noise. The only music we now have "out there" is the demo posted on an old Myspace site that I have forgotten the password for! I can't believe that over the years I have been contacted by people as far away as Japan, wondering what ever happened to the band. I don't how these people found me, but they did. I suppose the progressive rock community is a determined one.

    We are shooting for a release by May/June of 2018. I am absolutely humbled that after all these years there are people who still remember and look for music from a little band in New Jersey that never had a single live performance. That too will change. And to think all of this inspiration began many, many moons ago when a friend handed me a newly released album and I heard the first two chords of Watcher of the Skies...

    Peace to all my friends!

    KPAW

  4. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by Overworld Dreams View Post
    I probably have more knowledge of the band than anyone. I'm Ken Walker, keyboardist and one of the vocalists and writers in the band. Due to personal issues, we hit a very rough patch years ago and stopped work on the album. Unlike some bands, this had nothing to do with core personalities, as all of us (myself, Chris Parsons, Randy Sandmann, and my brother Steve Wells of metal band The Hixon) are still in contact despite being apart for many years. Life simply intruded on the best laid plans and sidelined the project. I became involved with George Johnson, who toured with McCoy Tyner for three years. It's rather complicated as to the circumstances, as core members left to complete educations, a marriage broke up...you probably get the idea. But...

    ...after years of being apart--with a hundred stories to be told--bassist Chris Parsons contacted me again in November, 2017 with an interesting proposal (despite an earlier rumor, he is not related to Alan Parsons. However, his father was in Bill Haley and the Comets. His father played the iconic rockabilly solo in Rock Around the Clock!). Chris, Randy and I have a mutual friend who writes excellent music. Chris wanted to revive Overworked Dreams as a full collaborative project with writing from myself, Chris, Randy, and a few other musician friends. In his words, it was time to make a mark. We found every old track, hard drive, scarp of paper, anything that had the music. We had recut the tracks Child of Dreams and Voyage to Castilia years ago, with guest musicians cutting individual tracks, including monster fusion guitarist Scott McGill (Finneus Gage, Ecolyn) and Shawn Christie from Zeroesque contributing. All of us lived within 15 minutes of each other at one time. I had even wanted to contact Annie Haslam to see if she would be willing to perform on a track, since she only lives about an hour from us. I just invested close to $30,000 in my home and built a recording studio for this project. We did have a contract with Ed Unitsky for artwork, half of which I paid for already years ago. We plan on having a website up and running in the near future. We are determined to not let anything stop us from getting this project completed. We have about two albums worth of material to record as of today.

    We are based in Southern New Jersey. Our state has a rich music history, from Frank Sinatra to Whitney Houston to Frankie Valli to Bon Jovi to Bruce Springsteen to Cinderella. I'd like Overworked Dreams to be the first progressive band from the state to make some noise. The only music we now have "out there" is the demo posted on an old Myspace site that I have forgotten the password for! I can't believe that over the years I have been contacted by people as far away as Japan, wondering what ever happened to the band. I don't how these people found me, but they did. I suppose the progressive rock community is a determined one.

    We are shooting for a release by May/June of 2018. I am absolutely humbled that after all these years there are people who still remember and look for music from a little band in New Jersey that never had a single live performance. That too will change. And to think all of this inspiration began many, many moons ago when a friend handed me a newly released album and I heard the first two chords of Watcher of the Skies...

    Peace to all my friends!

    KPAW
    Hi Ken. Thanks so much for your response and all of the information about current status of Overworld Dreams. Now I hope that the first OD album will see the daylight fairly soon.

  5. #5
    New Jersey-based OVERWORLD DREAMS have just released their debut album 'Voyage'. Ed Unitsky (TFK, Starcastle, Unitopia, The Tangent, Riversea, Manning, Anima Mundi, United Progressive Flaternity and many other bands) is responsible here for the cover art of official website and CD-packaging.


    https://overworlddreams.com

    https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/overworlddreams

  6. #6
    Just downloaded a track from the CD, Childhood Friend. It has elements of old and new prog, an ambitious release for sure. I know about the keyboard player, Ken Walker. I saw him perform with George Johnson after Johnson finished a tour with McCoy Tyner...Walker's roots are in jazz. I believe he did a few gigs with Grover Washington and I know he was with Cecil Parker for a year. He's a monster keys player but don't know if he will show off any flashy jazz chops on a prog CD. I also noticed that Scott McGill plays guitar on a few tunes, and he's a flat out master fusion guitarist, one of those forgotten great players.

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •