The songs on Adobe Home also represent a wide range of collaborative approaches, with Larson writing many of them solo, but with others calling on him to create either the lyrics, or the music, based on existing material. The sum total is a remarkably consistent mood-based collection that shows similar sensibilities among collaborators, as well as a complementary approach from co-Producers Larson and Gerry Beckley. 

I spoke with Jeff Larson about the fortuitous developments that led to Adobe Home and how the “reset” of the pandemic period encouraged him to take up recording solo work again alongside his busy life as a Producer. 

Hannah Means-Shannon: I understand that the imagery and ideas on Adobe Home are in tribute to California, particularly Southern California, but that’s a recent shift for you, since you’re from further north.

Jeff Larson: A lot of my songs get tagged with “California Sound”, whatever that may be. I’m from this state. I’m a native of the Bay Area and was there until 2020. This whole record is really about a transplant south in my surroundings. We all lived through a pandemic. I’m a songwriter who, ten years ago, started doing much more audio production, mainly for [the band] America. But I did stuff with Abbey Road, I did archive releases with The Royal Philharmonic. I did a Beach Boys, Buddy Holly, and Roy Orbison release. That stuff was going on behind the scenes, but what the pandemic did, which I thought was really unique, was it was kind of a reset if you were creatively inclined.

During the pandemic, it was like being a kid again. All of the sudden, you really didn’t think about business when you picked up an instrument. You could return to your core. Thankfully, I could still sing. So that’s what I did. I did it almost all from my head and my heart. It brought back a whole chunk of songs and emotions. It was really good for my head during that time. It was a survival tactic, and I’d work on stuff every morning.

HMS: Were you also able to continue your Production work during that time?

JL: I’d also work on a live album for America called Live From The Hollywood Bowl, and that took six months. We also did a bunch of stuff on Gerry