Watch Peter More’s Video for Donald Fagen-Produced ‘Beautiful Disrepair’: Exclusive Premiere
Steely Dan’s Donald Fagen has produced Beautiful Disrepair, the debut solo album by singer-songwriter Peter More, and we have the world premiere of the first video from the record, for the record's title track
Beautiful Disrepair is Fagen’s first full-length album production outside Steely Dan and his late partner Walter Becker’s 1994 solo album 11 Tracks of Whack. (Becker died in 2017.)
You can watch the video for "Beautiful Disrepair" below.
"We shot this video in San Miguel de Allende and a little ghost town called Pozos in central Mexico," Fagen tells UCR. "'Beautiful Disrepair' was written and recorded in San Miguel so we felt it was only appropriate to shoot the video there and we took off on four-wheelers around town looking for different locations.
"Some serendipitous moments came about while filming that helped craft the storyline," he continues, "like the little girl who walked over and gave me flowers on the hill at the end. We then visited the old mining town of Pozos nearby that offered an element of desuetude that contrasted well thematically with San Miguel.
"Filming this video was a two day adventure with director Christina Voros and her husband Jason Owen," he concludes. "It was an amazing experience to witness Christina's interpretation of the song and see two of my favorite towns through her eyes."
According to Rolling Stone, Fagen met More (previously a member of Brooklyn folk-rock act Oh Whitney) while on vacation in San Miguel de Allende. The pair hit it off while jamming together at a hotel restaurant and discussed the possibility of working together. Recording took place over the course of two years, between Fagen’s commitments with Steely Dan and the Dukes of September.
"Peter More is a great songwriter with a fine, original voice, and he's put together a stellar group of players," Fagen says. "After starting out with a few sessions in a home studio in Mexico, we moved on to Fort Worth (Pete's hometown), then upstate New York, and finally mixed the album at Pat Dillett's studio in Manhattan. Plus, the guys taught me and my wife Libby how to talk Texan. And on the last day, the band presented me with a twelve-gallon black Stetson, a bullwhip, and a pair of pink, wooly, batwing chaps. Is that fun or what?"
Fagen has had a busy touring year with Steely Dan in 2018, rolling out a double-bill summer tour with the Doobie Brothers, and focusing on upcoming themed shows at the Beacon Theater in New York City, as well as additional touring dates in October.