The Glad Machine’s new release “Hey!” contains eight wonderful, very personal hard rockin’ Power Pop songs.

Sweet Sweet Music spoke to Brad Thayer about how the new record came about.

Slow Motion July is such a beautifully melancholic anthem. Did it feel like a special song when you were writing it?

It summed up for us how early COVID felt. The line “you’re weighed down, but your way downtown” really nailed how we were feeling at the time .. the world was scary now. Nothing felt safe. Blocks away. Densely populated places were dangerous territory… glad that’s changing.

‘Somewhere between The Knack and The Outfield,’ I answered to my son when he asked where you were. Would you take that as a compliment? (And ‘yes’, my kids know both The Knack and The Outfield ).

The Knack Is a great example of a band that wrote great pop songs, but also appealed to a more discerning listener, so we’ll take it! And who doesn’t like that Outfield tune, right !?

If I could make songs like you, I’d dream about playing them in a packed stadium. Do you recognize that dream?

Stadiums … huh .. we definitely swing for the fences when we write, and at one point in my life, I imagined it daily, in my room, with my air microphone. Now, the thought of packing a large club with great sound is the ideal situation.

The world has changed since The Glad machine came out in 2017. Was ‘Hey!’ created differently than the previously published music?

It was a different process. Covid didn’t allow us to be in the same room, so most songs were written and recorded remotely. Mike Franklin and I did the lion’s share of the writing, and Mike did most of the heavy lifting with the recording. We produced it together, but he’d get it really close and send me mixes, which I would then send him notes, and we’d go back and forth like that for a bit. He worked his ass off on this!

How much fun is it to write a Christmas song?

Days Gone By … inspired by my best friend Gary Comstock . He lost his mother at 12, and could have easily given the holidays the old middle finger. But he didn’t . For the last 15 years, this NYC artist/writer / chef would post the most sentimental, beautiful, childlike yearnings for the season. His untarnished glee of the season inspired the song. Unfortunately, Gary died July 4, 2021, so the song means so much more to me now.

The record is dedicated to the memories of Gary Comstock, Chris Carr, Adam Schlesinger, Joshua Stoddard, Amber Reeves, and Ross Haberen. All people we lost, during the recording of the record, which absolutely directly affected and molded the end result.