When I started researching this band I was really surprised at how little information I was able to find. I stumbled on the album and as it was a 90’s album I wasn’t very optimistic. Wow was I wrong, this is one great Rock & Roll album. I found several people refer to it as a Metal album which it is not!!! This is a straight up hard rock album. Anyway as I said I can’t really find out too much about these guys. This was their second album but I have read that their first album is even better. We have it too but I haven’t listened to it yet. I did find some comments from the guitarist “Derek Ferwerda” (who was a new guitarist for this album) and I quote him here “It was the true inspirational and creative song writing of Jonathan Pagano before a clueless record company agenda got in the way.” Normally I would pile on the record label but I think Derek’s words say it all. Anyway it’s a bit late from the 80’s but it’s a great Rock & Roll album. Give it a listen, I promise you won;’t be disappointed.
Tracklist
1 – Story – 3:22
2 – Bad Place – 4:18
3 – Don’t You Run – 5:28
4 – Fire In The House – 4:09
5 – Heaven’s On My Mind – 4:15
6 – Let’s Talk About Love – 4:48
7 – Right In The Middle – 4:43
8 – Colour Of Love – 4:35
9 – Missionary – 4:39
10 – Stranger – 4:47
Credits
Art Direction – Tony Thigpen
Art Direction, Layout – Jeff Spencer
Bass Guitar – Jon
Bass, Engineer [Assistant] – Steve Evetts
Drums – Adam
Edited By [Digital Editing] – Alan Douches
Engineer [Assistant Mix Engineer] – Graig White
Engineer [Pre-Production Engineer] – Shawn Tom
Executive-Producer – Dez Dickerson
Guitar – Derek
Keyboards, Backing Vocals – Plinky
Lead Vocals, Guitar, Keyboards – Jonathan
Mastered By – Denny Purcell
Photography [Band Photography] – Russ Narrington
Producer, Recorded By [Assistant], Mixed By [Assistant] – Jonathan
Producer, Recorded By, Mixed By – Plinky
Companies, etc.
Recorded At – Trax East
Overdubbed At – Allies Studio
Mixed At – Sound Stage Studios
Mastered At – Georgetown Masters
Hey man,
This is Derek “Jan” Ferwerda. Thank you for the kind words. I can certainly help fill in any back line or back story on “us” as well as novella pre-my error. Jonathan Pagano is really the true genius of this in a nutshell. What Sting was to the Police, Jonathan Pagano is to Novella. I had a very long and rich history and secular music before novella. Billy squire, Marvin Gaye, Chuck Berry, Rick Springfield, Joe Cocker, Cyndi Lauper, spin doctors etc. etc. So I was able to see novella through completely different lens. I especially saw the evil and corrupt Christian music scene from a different length including the lens of my dear friend and late creator of entertainment law attorney Harold Orenstein. When you hear the phrase “they wrote the book “, he really did. He created entertainment law. His rates were $1000 an hour in 1992. When he spent three hours with our band as a favor and reviewed our contract these were his exact words.
“ Derek this is the worst POS document I have ever read. Not even the Jews screw each other like this in a deal“
On my way, those were his exact words. And according to Amy Grant, we had the best contracted Christian music because we owned 50% of our publishing according to the contract. Welcome to the Christian music industry in 1991 and 92. I will tell you from being inside the band, cool writing on the second record, arranging the songs and being very instrumental in putting it together, that the first record one big sky is by far the true genius of Jonothan Pagano and Novella. So for those of you reading, go get that album as well as a liquid earth.
Derek
Thanks for the music “)
I saw Novella with DeGarmo and Key once at a church in downtown Rochester, New York in the ’90s. It was an unplugged set, acoustics, etc. Very cool! As I recall, Novella was from New Jersey. They only have two albums that I know about, and we’re one of the most underrated duos of the time. I miss them a lot.