Alumnus releases second album, inspired by Richmond

Singer-songwriter Patt Eagan, Richmond College '12, drew considerably from his time at University of Richmond as inspiration for his second album, titled "Interstate Lines," which was released Dec. 10, 2013. The album is a mix of rock and folk music, and is for sale on iTunes.

The Baltimore native spent the majority of his senior year working on this album before eventually recording it at The Seaside Lounge Recording Studios in Brooklyn, N.Y. He had started a Kickstarter campaign during his last year at Richmond to fund the final product.

"The university itself and just Richmond the city really impacted the music," Eagan said. "There's a charm about Richmond and the South in general. In my song 'Sweet Southern Days,' I wrote about Richmond in particular and loving the idea of Southern hospitality."

Eagan said it had been something very special to him since he made a home at Richmond so quickly, even though coming fresh out of high school and starting college had been daunting at first.

The title of the album, Interstate Lines, was a phrase that encompassed Eagan's experience while he was writing the album's songs. All of the tracks were written during his time at Richmond, and the songs represent specific snapshots in time, summing up all the transitional points in his college career at Richmond.

"That transitional period and being in constant flux throughout the entirety of my college career--getting out of that high school period into the college period and thereafter, which is now," he said. "All the people I met along the way, the international students, those from California, New York, New Jersey, Midwest, you name it--it is an interesting look at the melting pot that UR has to offer. It gets you thinking about things a little differently."

Eagan works in the wine business and resides in Charlottesville, Va. During his senior year at Richmond, he worked for the Virginia Wine Board Marketing Office. He majored in business with a concentration in marketing.

"The dilemma I'm facing now is that I totally love the wine business, because in a lot of ways, it's really similar to music," he said. "There's the growing of the grapes that I liken to the performance. When you're recording, if you put on a good performance, it's going to sound good on the CD. If you pull together good fruit from the vineyard, then the eventual finished wine product is going to be a representation of how good the fruit was."

Although Eagan graduated from the Robins School of Business in 2012, he also worked with music department chairman Benjamin Broening during his senior year to fine-tune the tracks for his album.

"By the time Patt came to me, he had written most of the songs on the album in one form or another," Broening said. "We talked a lot about what instruments would go well. We talked about counter melodies, and somewhat of the recording process. Mostly it was a way of flushing out what he had already done and sort of realizing potential through the arrangements of different instruments."

At its core, the album is singer-songwriter in nature, Eagan said. He drew out the genre inspired by Bob Dylan, Ryan Adams, Billy Joel and Glen Hansard.

"All of the songs were initially written as solo pieces on a single instrument, but through collaboration with the musicians who played on the album, the songs took on a bigger, more elaborate feel and energy that comes with live band recording," he said. "This was exciting for me because I have only ever recorded solo in the past."

For the most part, a group of musicians from Baltimore recorded in the studio with Eagan, but a number of other New York musicians lent their talents on various tracks with backing instrumentals and vocals, Eagan said.

Fellow musician Benny Goldstein contributed to the production of "Interstate Lines." Goldstein has collaborated with Eagan since high school and is currently touring the United States with his indie folk rock band Swear and Shake.

Contact reporter Sheetal Babu at sheetal.babu@richmond.edu