Anton Fig featuring Ivan Neville – “Inside Out” (audio) (premiere)

Anton Fig has had as cool a musical career as you can imagine. A session drummer extraordinaire, he played on the best KISS solo album, and provided the beat to one of the best singles of the disco/rock crossover era. A member of David Letterman’s house band since 1986, he’s played with every upper-tier musician imaginable, and even ate a canary on television. No, not a real canary, but it was comedy gold.

Now that the Letterman gig is over Fig is focusing on his own music, and will be releasing his debut solo album Figments this summer. Originally issued in a very limited edition pressing in 2002, the album boasts a bevy of guest appearances, including Brian Wison, Al Kooper, Booker T. Jones, Dick Dunn, Paul Shaffer, Ace Frehley, and Sebastian Bach. The album’s first single, the exquisitely crafted R&B tune “Inside Out”, features Ivan Neville on vocals and Miles Davis collaborator Mile Holtzman on clavinet.

“I wrote the track and music to this song and sent it to Max Carl who wrote the song on top,” Fig says. “I have always loved this song which features Ivan Neville on vocals. Ivan is a fantastic musician whom I have known for a while. I love his music and spirit, so I was thrilled when he agreed to sing the song, which needed another angle to avoid it being to ‘poppy’. Check out Adam Holtzman’s, [one of Miles Davis’ musicians] funky clavinet part, and Randy Brecker’s flugel solo. New York guitarist Joe Caro is on rhythm guitar and Catherine Russell, who did most of the background vocals on the album, sounds great as usual.”

Figments will be released 14 August.