by: William Penne
On Friday, Nov. 8, the second single in the new Perimeter Road Singles Series is set to be released. The song, “Lost in Space” by The 11th Hour, is an artifact from a lost era, evoking the Wall-of-Sound of ‘60s pop records while maintaining a rock edge. The artist behind The 11th Hour, Jason Hayes, is a Parkland employee at WPCD.
Hayes has been working as the production assistant and music director at WPCD since 2015. Hayes started as a student, but after graduating got hired to work here as a part-time employee. He is returning to his original passion with the release of his new song.
“[This song] was the opening track/overture for the rock opera I was writing titled The 11th Hour. It takes place a quarter of the way through the story when they are on the run from authorities,” says Hayes of his song. “It takes place in the ‘60s when the draft was still implemented so he’s been drafted, but since he’s a conscientious objector, he is on the run in the middle of the country deciding what to do next.”
“I was listening to a lot of The Moody Blues at the time, as well as The Beach Boys. My band at the time was a three—sometimes four—piece rock band, so I was trying to write something outside of that,” Hayes said of the style of the song. “I was really imagining some luscious production in the 1966-67 kind of vibe.”
Hayes told me about his ambitions for the song in the past and how the song has changed form over the years. He detailed how it started as a demo on a Casio keyboard and transformed into his greatest ambition by adding a full orchestra, piano, harpsichord and whatever other magnificent sounds he could conjure up.
Of course, Hayes has been working at WPCD for almost five years now. I asked him about what it was like to return to the artist’s seat at Parkland rather than being behind the scenes.
“I was asked by Luke [Matias, of Perimeter Road] and Deane [Geiken, radio director of WPCD] if I would be the next artist in the singles series since they knew I had written a bunch of songs back in the day. I tried to pull one that I hadn’t written for my old band. I had to kind of conjure up the song again, rewriting some of the lyrics and the like.”
“It’s been a good experience working with all of the students at Perimeter Road. It has been a lot of fun seeing everyone work together. This is my first experience seeing how Perimeter Road works from the inside”
While there is no full orchestra on the final version that will be released through Perimeter Road, Hayes is impressed with the way the students have produced the song and how well it has all come together.
“It’s been a good experience working with all of the students at Perimeter Road. It has been a lot of fun seeing everyone work together, and it’s nice seeing how [the students] do their stuff, because I have never been involved with that side of things. This is my first experience seeing how Perimeter Road works from the inside,” Hayes said of his time working with the students in the studio.
Hayes recalled how fun it was to record the drums for his song, not only because he had never heard the drums for the song before, but also to see the turnout of students for the session. He was surprised and delighted to see the number of students that were there for the session.
The new song, “Lost in Space” will be released digitally on Nov. 8 and can also be heard on Parkland’s radio station, WPCD
*An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that Jason Hayes is a full-time employee. This article has been updated to show that Jason Hayes is a part-time employee at Parkland College.
