by Lucky Clark, The Kennebec Journal, 2.07.03

Tonight, The Edge in Augusta will host a performance of NOW is NOW, a power trio from Steep Falls celebrating their debut CD titled, "Transitions." The band was founded and is fronted by Mitch Alden who was interviewed recently from his home in Steep Falls about his music and the upcoming show in Augusta.

It was learned that he taught himself to sing for this project by buying a little digital eight-track recorder. "I spent six months in preproduction ironing out my voice and making it work. I learned to sing from a muscular standpoint," Alden said, "rather than from an ear standpoint - it's hitting that 'sweet spot' muscularly rather than always trying to hear where your coming from. I took all that I learned from the singers who I've played with over the years and put it into my record."

The guitarist-singer-songwriter went into the studio scared to death because this was his first time voicing his own songs, and when he heard the final mix he was thrilled. "This is Mitch, this is my heart & soul, and I'm psyched with it. I've got to tell you I'm psyched out of my skull about it!" As the debut CD came out in October of 2002, one was curious to see if the band leader and crew were working on something new. "We've got about five tunes already and the goal is to get back into the studio by year's end and have a release by June of 2004," he said.

The rocker takes his songs seriously incorporating all the time needed to get the melody and because he's finally making his own music, he can concentrate on songs that come from his own heart. "I'm tired of writing about adolescent anger and all that (stuff) that's only palpable once in a while, not all the time. There's a little angst on the record and in the show, but it's more of a tension and a working through the angst rather than society, which so many bands are saying nowadays."

Lucky Clark is a freelance writer for Scripps Howard News Service.