Stephen Sanchez evokes the silver screen on full length debut, Angel Face.
Before he even reached his twenties, singer, songwriter, guitarist, and producer Stephen Sanchez recorded his debut single, and now multi-platinum hit, “Until I Found You;” which when combined with the Em Beihold duet version, has nearly 2 billion streams. In the years between he sold out several successive headline tours and been invited to perform on just about every major late-night talk show including The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Late Night with Seth Meyers, and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
Now on his full-length debut, Angel Face, Sanchez reveals his imagination is as big as his voice. Ostensibly recorded in 1958 by the fictional “Troubador Sanchez,” Angel Face was shelved until now after the invented mid-century crooner was gunned down following a love affair with a mob boss’s girlfriend.
The concept record lands somewhere between noir and melodrama, but Sanchez’s vocal acrobatics make it hard not to fall into his silver screen dream. The real-life Sanchez has the chops to justify the histrionics too. Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra come to mind of course, but Sanchez folds in the Big O’s range without its haunting quality, and Jeff Buckley’s dramatic intensity with a much more focused musical style. Everything today is some sort of pastiche anyway, but Sanchez simply chooses to wear his heart on his sleeve.
Nostalgia is a funny thing. The inventive Sanchez bio describes his music as “illuminated by a belief that the kind of romance and love we used to see on the silver screen is still possible.” Was it ever possible? Or is our imagined past as fictional as the silky whispers and sweet nothings in Clark Gable’s scripts? Does it matter? The world could use some romance and idealism—we’re all full on cynics. Cogent thoughts melt like butter anyway with voices like Stephen Sanchez’s in your ear.
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Set List:
“I Need You Most Of All”
“No One Knows”
“Until I Found You”
Album: Angel Face (Republic Records)
Musicians:
Stephen Sanchez – vocals, guitar; Anson Eggerss – piano; Brooks Gengenbach – guitar; Jesse Houte – bass; Watson Macck – drums
Credits:
Producer: Deidre Gott; Production Assistant: Confucius Jones; Audio Engineer: Rene Chavez; Audio Mix: Rene Chavez; Cameras: Renee Dominguez, Nastassja Collak, Ivy Fowler; Edit: Renee Dominguez; Host: Trina Quinn
