When Space Opera's music hits you for the first time, it's immediately apparent that you're being exposed to a sound that is truly unique, and maybe even a little ahead of its time as well.

Formed in Texas in the summer of 1969, by David Bullock, Phillip White, Scott Fraser and Brett Wilson, the band built up a loyal following throughout various parts of the United States and Canada in the early 70's. Imagine a cross between The Byrds and the smooth, west coast, country rock sound, expertly interwoven with elements of progressive rock and classical influences and that's just the tip of the iceberg of what Space Opera were all about. Their debut album, released by Epic Records in 1973, was a promising one, but unfortunately they were dropped before they had a chance to follow it up. The band disbanded for a short period, before eventually reconvening to write, play and record new music, something they would do numerous times over the next three decades. Their second album, Space Opera II, was released independently in 2000.

While Space Opera's music definitely deserved to be heard on a much grander scale, it's people like It's About Music (www.itsaboutmusic.com) that are helping to preserve the bands legacy by keeping their music alive and introducing it to a whole new generation of listeners. They have just issued an excellent new compilation of music entitled Safe At Home, which brings together nine unreleased gems that were recorded prior to their first album. Also included are six tracks from 1975, 1977 and 1978, as well extensive liner notes from sole remaining member David Bullock, who oversaw the entire project. Due yourself and the band a favor and check out this outstanding archive release. I recently had a chance to catch up with David Bullock to discuss the new album in detail as well as to learn a little more about this history of this vastly underrated band.

David: Yes, that's right. Phil White, Scott Fraser and I were the three who stuck together after the Unwritten Works album was done, and formed Space Opera. The other principal artists on the Unwritten project were Edd Lively, John Carrick, and T.Bone Burnett. Phil and I had played together since 8th grade, doing acoustic folk music. We joined up with Scott and Edd to form an electric　folk-rock-blues group in 1967, and that was the basis for the Unwritten Works project.

David: T.Bone owned a studio, Sound City, in Fort Worth. He was a couple of years older, but we had all gone to the same school, had played around town in various bands and knew each other. He produced and engineered all the sessions and wrote four of the songs that ended up on the record. He was already a really good producer at age nineteen.

David: We had already outgrown that music by the time the album was released. The Unwritten Works was when the light really turned on. Space Opera was when it achieved full wattage.

David: I really can't remember the first time we rehearsed together, but it was as if he had always been a part of our thing, the fit was that good. It was his musical style, his intelligence, and his personality. Everything just clicked somehow.

David: Remember, three of us had been working together for several years already, and once Brett joined us, as Space Opera, we were playing gigs constantly, five or six nights a week. So we were already up to speed. But standing on an outdoor stage and looking out onto a sea of humanity, that was a very new experience, really exciting, and a great opportunity.　 And we got to hear some good sets by B.B King, my old friend Johnny Winter, and a new band called Led Zeppelin.

David: As Space Opera we made our first studio recordings a couple of months later. We recorded some at Delta Studio　in Fort Worth and then went to Nashville and recorded in the Columbia studio there. Back in Dallas, we recorded a handful of songs at IRI Studios that got a lot of local airplay. It sort of made us hometown heroes.

David: Exit 4 was recorded just prior to our leaving Texas and moving to Williamsville, NY. We began recording at Exit 4 Studio in Dallas in the winter of 1970 and finished in early '71. It's a great representation of what the band sounded like at that time　and I'm glad that　it finally got released, 40 years later!　

David: By the time we had been together for six months, the band had already made forays into Nashville and New York.　 A year later, we were doing club gigs and　opening concerts all over　Texas and surrounding states. 　Figured it was time to move on. We were introduced to John Brower, who was a promoter in Toronto. John had mounted the Toronto Rock and Roll Revival in 1969, where John Lennon played. Toronto seemed like a nice opportunity, so we relocated to western New York State, which was just across the border from Canada. From that base we could play extensively in Toronto and also have access to gigs in New York, Connecticut, etc… There were a lot of college concerts and clubs.

We ended up recording the album in Toronto because Columbia Records of Canada gave us the deal we wanted. We would produce the album ourselves, with complete artistic control, and keep all our publishing rights. It was an amazing contract, especially for a new and unproven group.

David: That was our band house in Williamsville, NY, which is a little township outside Buffalo. The house was a rambling old two-storey with a basement, situated on a heavily wooded acreage. It housed the four of us and our manager, sound engineer, and road crew. We built a home studio and rehearsal facility in the basement. We wrote and arranged most of the music for the Columbia album in that house, when we were not on the road. And we entertained a steady flow of　visitors, friends, artists, record producers and executives. It was a very fruitful period for the band. We left Williamsville and moved to Toronto to record, and then went back home to Texas. In many ways, our time living together in that house was that last time we were really a cohesive band.

David: We had been doing some live shows that intertwined several songs, dissolving　from one to the other seamlessly. It was sort of a cinematic approach, and we decided to do a version of this idea for an album. We had worked on many versions of these songs and how to sequence them together. So what you hear is the result of a lot of work and thought among four guys who spent most of their waking hours collaborating, composing and performing. Our mutual grounding in folk music and the Mersey sound　probably accounts for our love of vocal harmony.

David: We never planned or even discussed what sound or what "bag" we were going for; we just wrote the best we　could and　worked on that until we were satisfied with it. That was our only criterion. Maybe it would've been smarter from a marketing standpoint to pick one genre and hammer it to death, but that never crossed our minds. And we were inspired by what The Beatles had done, mixing lots of elements in their albums without worrying how others might define them.

David: I'm glad you like that one. We did it just like that onstage, with flute, vibes, piano and contrabass. Onstage, we used an Echoplex for the flute　but on this recording, the engineer used multiple tape decks to get the loop echo effect. This cut was done　just live in studio, one take, no overdubs.

David: We recorded it three times and this is the best version, I think. Yeah, that one always got a good reaction, and it was the first radio single for us. It's the one we all got tired of playing, but it did get us lots of attention.

David: Just to recap the timeline, we recorded Exit 4, then moved up to Canada, then recorded the album for Columbia, then came back home to Texas. This last group of songs were recorded over the span of a few years in the mid- to late-70s. We were no longer a working band, we just got together sporadically to play onstage or to record. Scott and I were no longer listening to popular music, mostly 20th century classical and avant-garde stuff. We spent a lot of time listening and learning to orchestrate. We began to incorporate winds and strings into our live and studio work. These recordings were not intended to be on an album. We didn't have a contract any longer. We were just doing the music we wanted to do at that time - same as always.

David: The album we recorded for Columbia didn't sell enough copies and they dropped our contract.　We never landed another label deal, and unlike today, there were very few avenues for an independent release.　

David: Actually, we did break up, we dissolved our partnership. Of course, a year later we were back together, but we never really regained the momentum we'd had before. But at least we were playing again.

This was the period when we were adding winds and strings to the mix. We were still doing most of our older songs and some new ones, with the added texture of the ancillary players. We were like a little orchestra, playing in 100 seat clubs in Texas.

David: We had been apart, musically for over fifteen years. I guess we just felt it was time to get back together. We rehearsed on weekends　at Eagle Audio, which is a 24-track studio, and　then booked a show at Caravan of Dreams, a　great concert-club in downtown Fort Worth. The　show was　sort of a throwback to the suite-like　intertwined songs concept we had done back in　1970. We decided to record an album that would be a representation of　(what would turn out to be) our last phase. We did that at Eagle　Audio and it was released independently in 2000.

David: No, we all planned to play together until we died, which is what happened.

David: Yes, it was in a sweltering little club in the summer of 2004, in Fort Worth. We played well and had a great audience, but it was a miserable setting.

David: My main task was to choose the songs that I thought were best and also to put myself in the minds of my partners to consider what they would have wanted. I felt a responsibility to them and to myself to get it right.

David: I chose the material for Safe at Home from the best studio recordings that were as yet unreleased. There's probably another album's worth of studio cuts, but it's all songs that I don't think the other guys would want released. There's also a ton of live recordings, some very lo-fi, which I would like to get out. I might have to just bootleg that stuff.

David: I'm proud of what we did together and wish we could have done more. The legacy of the band rests with our friends, family, and any others　who still enjoy listening to the recordings. That's more than good enough for me. When we're all gone, I really don't care if our music is remembered, and I don't expect it will be. It will already have served its purpose.