Adam Goldberg’s LANDy finally takes off

Actor Adam Goldberg worked on his LANDy album for six years. With a little help, it’s finally a wrap.

Adam Goldberg has made a nice living interpreting characters for film and television, building a respectable profile with roles in such projects as "Dazed and Confused," "Saving Private Ryan" and the 2003 indie "The Hebrew Hammer." 

Now the 38-year-old actor is playing himself, and not in front of a camera. His debut album of pop music, "Eros and Omissions," released Tuesday under the unusual name LANDy, finds the songwriter discovering meaning in seemingly disconnected episodes from his own tangled world.

The "unintentional concept record," as he describes it, took shape over the last six years and features guest appearances from members of the Black Pine, Flaming Lips and Earlimart -- all of whom had a hand in helping Goldberg mold his pop confessionals into moody, multi-layered soundscapes.

"It became interesting to me as a scrapbook, how certain things get repeated, how cyclical things are," said Goldberg, standing on the patio of his home above Franklin Avenue. "Things had happened in my life I had to confront, and there were a lot of subsets of experiences in that six-year period. And in that way this music is not an artistic exorcism but an emotional exorcism."

LANDy will perform at 9 p.m. on Thursday at the Regent Theatre in downtown L.A.

Goldberg has written poetry since he was young and keeps a journal "that looks like it's written in Sanskrit," he said. Right around 2002, he began stockpiling two dozen songs or partial tracks that he'd worked out on guitar, keyboards and drums "during completely erratic, nocturnal excursions." 

His collaborators, over time, included Emma Kathan, Mitch Cichocki and Jason Bacherof L.A. art-rockers the Black Pine; the Flaming Lips' Steven Drozd; and, eventually, L.A. songwriter-producer Aaron Espinoza of Earlimart.

Goldberg recorded some material in 2005 with Drozd in Oklahoma, but despite the songwriter's own attempts to complete mixes and overdubs over the next couple of years, the project was no closer to completion.

"I had this pile of impenetrable stuff that had been on the back burner because of work and upheaval in my personal life," he said. "I've always been good at setting goals and getting things done, but this was taking on a creepy 'Smile' vibe," Goldberg said, referring to Brian Wilson's decades-in-the-making endeavor.

Things finally started to take shape after Mark Eitzel of American Music Club introduced Goldberg to Espinoza. The pair began some winnowing and some re-recording at Espinoza's studio, the Ship.

"He's really a music fan -- he's done his homework, and not just with the classic stuff," Espinoza said. "At first you hear the John Lennon influence and you say, 'Oh, OK.' Then you hear some of the [complexities] and you think TV on the Radio or Sparklehorse."

The album's sonically layered art-pop reflects Goldberg's curiosity as both a songwriter and knob-twiddler.

"I like stripped-down music, but I like creating a big landscape and getting lost in all the sounds too," he said. "I've always been obsessed with how to create different sounds and moods. In many ways it's like directing. To me, the editing room is the most creative place."

Goldberg is proud of how "Eros and Omissions" manages to hold together "as a cohesive document," and Espinoza agrees that it works as a whole. 

"I think it's a true testament to a journal style of an album," he said. "There are Polaroid pictures . . . all the way to high-res digital pictures."

As for any concerns that his film and television career might affect how the music is perceived, Goldberg isn't terribly worried.

"You know, in the old days you weren't an actor or a musician -- you'd better be good at both," Goldberg said. "The reality is that I've spent a lot more time playing music than I have acting. Some guys in bands work in bookstores. It just so happens I make my living in a way the public can follow."

--Kevin Bronson

DUAL ROLES: Goldberg is playing some live shows too. Credit: Robert Lachman