You might not be familiar with Steve Salett, but your favorite artists know him well.
A “musician’s musician,” the New York City singer/songwriter, producer, and musical advisor has led a multifaceted career since the mid-1990s, playing in several bands, performing his own music as The Poison Tree, and forming music collectives that have been a sustaining creative center for many musicians and beyond. Salett also runs Reservoir Studios in Manhattan and the Saltmines studio complex in DUMBO, Brooklyn, and recently founded his own label, Historical Fiction Records.
But he’s never released music under his own name – until now. Releasing July 13th, First Landing is Steve Salett’s long-awaited debut solo album, and one he had to own in every sense of the word.
A confessional, deeply vulnerable, and brutally honest record, First Landing finds Salett picking apart and piecing together the past decade of his life since the sudden and unexpected loss of his wife, Estella, to breast cancer in 2011. In the years since, Salett’s focus has been raising two young children and working with artists behind-the-scenes – but in 2022, he reemerged with the six-track Estella Jane EP, comprised of recordings he had been sitting on since the mid-2010s. Whereas that EP was an unflinching distillation of intense grief and loss, First Landing looks to the light as Salett finds himself anew – carrying the weight of his past, while discovering love again in his wife, Dara.
First Landing is intimate yet kaleidoscopic, with Salett often calling in musicians and producers whom he has worked closely with for years.
Today Glide is premiering the animated video for “Pictures on the Table,” a short and intimate tune that carries an emotional impact that stretches well past listening. The contribution of Josh Kaufman on lap steel brings the entire sound together and gives it that dreamy folk-rock element that suits the lyrics so well. Coming in at under two minutes, the song passes like a wisp of smoke or a quick flash of memory before fading cozily away.
Steve describes the process behind the song:
“I have no idea where the Pictures on the Table came from— totally improvised. It was written as Josh Kaufman and I recorded it- the song just appeared. I think we set up a microphone and with no plan or anything previously written just played the song. The vocals, drums and guitar all tracked live on one microphone. And Josh took a pass with the lap steel and bass and within 10 minutes it was written, tracked overdubbed and essentially mixed. Just one of those lucky moments that you could never capture by trying”
Watch the video and read Steve’s reflection on the album:
First, let me say that it is tough to try to capture an album or song in words. Music should explain itself. If it doesn’t, then it has failed—or at least failed that particular listener.
That said, I hope First Landing is as much about falling from a great height as about the first floating steps that an astronaut might take on the moon. Also, ‘First Landing’ was the name of a racehorse.
One thing I can say about this record is that it was hard to make. There was no plan in its creation, no slick concept neatly woven from some profound conceit. It appeared only after years, with many misfires, and came out of the belief that I was a good songwriter. That belief (perhaps irrational) kept me churning away until I was done. And these were the best songs I could gather from that very long process—songs I fucking adore (even with their ugly little faces, that only a parent could love). The truth is: I have no idea how they came to life. But that doesn’t matter. Here they are, in all their ugly beauty.
