Mike Doughty

The former Soul Coughing front-man Mike Doughty is back with a brand new album that's a sharp left turn from anything he's released lately. Via Snack Bar/Megaforce Records, it's fan-funded, heavily influenced by alternative hip-hop, and led by a track with a killer banjo riff. That song is "Light Will Keep Your Heart Beating In The Future." It is taken from Doughty's upcoming album Stellar Motel, due out on September 16th.

Doughty explains, "The song title is a headline from a newspaper that I saw a guy reading across from me on the subway. Good Goose, my producer, and I put the song together around a banjo part that I improvised. He just happened to have a banjo in the studio, which is weird, considering he's a hip-hop guy. He looped it, put it over a beat, and I sang fragments and phrases from my notebook."

Doughty's insanely dedicated fan base has been watching the project for a while. It was funded entirely via PledgeMusic, which allowed supporters to watch Doughty and producer Good Goose write and record the music.

"I think what's interesting about Stellar Motel is the amount of guests on it, particularly all the rappers," Doughty says. "I knew the ladies of Hand Job Academy, they introduced me to Big Dipper, and he introduced me to Jay Boogie. One thing I find particularly interesting in New York music these days is the queer hip-hop scene. There are a tremendous amount of amazing young gay lyricists. It's a real, vital underground."

Aside from Hand Job Academy, Big Dipper, Jay Boogie, and Miss Eaves, the album also features contributions from MC Frontalot, Kim from the Japanese band Uhnellys, country singer Laura Lee Bishop, cellist Andrew "Scrap" Livingston, and Brooklyn saxophone-and-drums band Moon Hooch, whom Doughty first encountered playing on New York's Union Square subway platform.

Doughty will be promoting the new album via a lengthy North American Fall tour.

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