Kirkland man releases 48-hour album

It was a big night for Greg McClellan. For the past 20 years, he has been constructing what may be the world’s longest music album in dedication to his lifelong friend.

McClellan never intended the album to be 48 hours long. He said “it just ended up being that long.”

He also never intended to release the album in any kind of formal way; he created this album to show his friend Curt that “someone listened and someone cared” about what he was experiencing. However, McClellan was encouraged by friends to release the album given the fact that it is the only one like it.

With that, McClellan created 100 copies of the 39-disc album with a specially designed case and design and held a formal release party at Vortex Music & Movies in Kirkland.

The album release party attracted about 40 people to the snug music store located on 116th Avenue on Oct. 24.

As previously reported, McClellan has been friends with Curt since they attended Northshore Junior High School in 1981. McClellan described Curt as always being “a mysterious guy,” but that he’s always been a “really genuine, sweet soul.”

“(Curt would), like, pick numbers out of my head at times and he always seemed like he had a foot behind the curtain of reality in a way. To this day, he’s still like that,” McClellan said. “He’s just been a really close friend of mine and he’s just a really genuine, sweet soul. He doesn’t have a mean bone in his body.”

Their friendship continued into adulthood when McClellan was recording his first album, “Listen,” in 1999. One night during recording, Curt visited McClellan and told him that “he had been tricked into signing papers to allow an implant to be put into his head.”

“He said the data was going too fast, he was hearing voices [referred to as the ‘Controllers’], he was hearing electronic squeaks and feedback and all these sounds in his head,” McClellan said. “What was I supposed to do with that?”

McClellan decided to create a second album, “Listen2Daze.”

“Listen2Daze” is a 48-hour-long concept album. The 400 songs on 39 discs or “chapters” detail the story of Curt’s life, his experiences with the Controllers and mystical concepts he and McClellan have discussed over the years. The album combines Curt’s recorded testimonies with his life’s story and his friendship with McClellan.

With music recordings he created with guitarist, Bill Barkley, along with many other musician friends, McClellan spent years carefully weaving Curt’s recorded voice messages with the music.

“Overall, it’s a study of one man’s life of how he can go from being perfectly fine with a house in Duvall to being called crazy and living on the streets of Seattle…You never know what’s around the corner,” McClellan said. “It is an autobiography, it’s a lasagna of multiple concepts that have intrigued us over the years and fused together into a larger whole.”

Filled with laughter, hugs and a few albums sold, the release party provided a fulfilling conclusion to the 20-year endeavor for McClellan.

“I am so happy to see this finally finished and that I’m able to share it with others, and especially Curt,” he said.