This single by Arboreal was a mystery to me, the only names on the label are Glen, Greg Allen, and no label name or address. The songs are in stereo. As it turns out, Arboreal were two brothers, Greg Allen and Glen Allen, originally from Nutley, New Jersey but living in New York City when they went into a studio as early as and cut the songs on this single.
Glen wrote a long history of the band. Greg and I had a clunky but good sounding Telefunken tape recorder and, later, a Sony that had sound-on-sound,as it was called back then.
We could overdub ourselves. By then our family had been in NYC for about a year. Greg and I decided to record in an actual studio. An older classmate of mine, Jon Fausty, was working in a studio that specialized in Latin music. The next day the gear was in working order, and I had shaken off the nerves. But who knew at the time that left handed drummers set up their drums differently than righties? Nontheless, with Greg keeping time and me on guitar, bass and vocals!
Some of the rejection letters came on very nice stationery. Some with encouraging comments and actual signatures! As I recall, Pickwick, a budget label, made an offer, but we held out for the big fish. That fish is still swimming merrily out there somewhereβ¦.
TT: How did you first get involved in music? Was the Next Five your first band? The first time I was with a band was in my garage with some kids from the neighborhood, by the time I was 13 I already knew I wanted to sing in band and hang out with the cool kids.
