The Story Behind Ben Vaughn's INSTRUMENTAL STYLINGS Album Creating Music For 3rd Rock

Bar/None Records will be giving Ben Vaughn's 1995 album Instrumental Stylings it's first release on vinyl January 26. The re-release uncludes a download card with the complete album and four bonus tracks including one featuring a guest vocal from Dean Ween. Vaughn tells the story of the album's genesis and its enormous impact on his career as a musician forever after:

KCRW studio, Santa Monica, CA, February, 1995:

As a track from my brand new record Instrumental Stylings fades out, morning show host Chris Douridas turns on the mike and asks why I moved to L.A. "I came here to work," I answer. And then, half-kidding, I add, "If anyone out there needs a composer for a film or TV show call the station." Chris laughs, we talk a little more and then he cues up another song. Moments later the studio phone rings, an intern picks up, listens intently and hands the receiver to me. "Someone wants to talk to you about a TV pilot."

At home in Collingswood, NJ, eight months earlier:

Glenn Morrow from Bar None Records calls to talk to me about an instrumental EP I just released on Munster Records in Spain. "Do you think you could come up with a whole album of this stuff?," he asks. "If so, we'll release it."

And that's how my Hollywood career began. Of course, no story is that simple. Shortly after our phone conversation, Glenn told me to call L.A. music supervisor Carol Sue Baker who was pitching Bar None product for film and TV placement. "Things are changing out here," she said. "Your sound is what they're going to want once Pulp Fiction comes out." Pulp what? "Never mind. Pack up and move here and you'll get more work than you can handle."

And so I did. On New Year's Day of 1995 I loaded up my '64 Rambler with a guitar, a boom box, several changes of clothes andpointed the car toward California. Also in my possession were copies of my new Bar None CD, Instrumental Stylings. I was not only excited about the journey but also proud of the new record. It was the most immediate album I had ever recorded. In three week's time I had written, recorded and mixed the project in Palmyra Delran's basement studio playing all the instruments myself. It was an exhausting but exhilerating experience. Little did I know that this process would be the training ground for the intense deadlines Hollywood would soon inflict on me.

To say that the rest is history is a cliché but it's true in this case. The phone call I took at KCRW that morning was with Caryn Mandabach, the president of Carsey-Werner Productions. She said she was listening to the radio while driving to work, heard my music and was convinced I was perfect for a new sitcom they were developing. She gave me directions to their office on the CBS studio lot and requested I drive there immmediately from the radio station. In the meantime she would send a runner to Tower Records to pick up copies of Instrumental Stylings. The meeting was quick. I was introduced to the show's creators Bonnie and Terry Turner and we all sat down to watch the pilot together. It was a show called 3rd Rock From The Sun and was centered around space creatures posing as human beings who arrive on on Earth in a Rambler. When I asked what type of music they were looking for they said, "American rock 'n roll as if played by aliens. In other words, what you're already doing on your CD." I took that as a compliment and then revealed that I drove a Rambler. I was hired on the spot.

The success of 3rd Rock From The Sun led to being hired as Carsey-Werner's go-to guy for the next eleven years, banging out music for numerous sitcoms, most notably That 70s Show. But it all began with three phone calls. And this album you now hold in your hands.

Instrumental Stylings is unique - it's a record but also a Hollywood screen test. And now it's on vinyl for the first time, thanks to Bar None. Enjoy!

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