In the late spring of 2010 our good old friends Deadbeat Poets published a new album called Circustown with 12 new songs raising a variety of topics that concerns the band. We liked the album, and we decided not to write a simple, formal review about it, but write about the first months of new album's life. We asked the musicians to talk about their album and asking them some questions.

Frank Secich: – The album "Circustown" came out in the middle of May.The first & foremost goal that we wanted to achieve was to make a fine album which it is. Pop Detective records has done a great job in getting it distributed around the country & reviewed in the press. We have also had some fabulous radio airplay around the world including our song "The Staircase Stomp!" being picked as "The Coolest Song In The World" on Little Steven's Underground Garage nationally syndicated radio show & we had tons of airplay on the show & satellite radio all summer.

One of my goals is to have a hit record in the UK. We are working on that & we still have a lot of life left in the album. We'd also like to do a full-fledged tour of the USA & we are now working with an agent so that may yet be possible. We'd also like to go back to Europe which we are working on as well. So we have probably reached half of our goals with more yet to come. The only thing that could have been better would have been to get a lot more press on the album but that is also looking better everyday.

– Is there the deserted Circus Town in Butler was only one thing that influenced new album? Where did you get inspiration from?

 – The deserted "Circustown" is one of the inspirations for the album but there are many others. That concept gives us the general theme & glue (as it were) that holds it together (See photo booklet at http://www.popdetective.com).  A lot of my songwriting is based on characters that I knew from my youth like "Elvin Dabney Professional Thief" who was a real person & "The Staircase Stomp!" which is about legendary British record producer Joe Meek & his monumental talent & tragic end.My song "Madras Man (A Blues In 3/4 Time" is pretty much a surrealistic tale about growing up in a provincial town (Sharon, Pennsylvania) & is loaded with real people & places."The Postmodern Razor Wire Showdown" is my political protest song & is dedicated to Phil Ochs who sort of makes a guest appearance as "John Butler Train".. Terry's songs are more about the human condition such as "Circustown" where he mentions "the man who washes up the elephants". It is rumored that Terry once actually held that very job in a circus.His songs also are very Ohio-Midwestern such as "So, This Is Indiana" & the forlorn hope of "At Least It Work Out For You".There's also the quite humourous people observation piece of "People These Days". Listening to the album one song after another is like going through a carnival to me. To me the songs are like seeing & hearing all the sights, side-shows, the lights & noise & barkers& freak-shows on the mid-way. It's very midwestern USA Americana.

 – There are 5 songs that did not make the cut for "Circustown" album. They are "Vodka Is The Loving Tongue", "Fill Her Up, Abraham", Riding The Dog", "The Man With The X-Ray Eyes" & "Welcome To Chinatown". They will be issued by Pop Detective Records on EP called "Youngstown Vortex Sutra" in November. Also, included will be a re-mix of "The Green Man" which will appear in the upcoming motion picture called "The Green Man" directed by Joe Shelby.There will also be remixes of "No Island Like The Mind, No Ship Like Beer" & "The Truth About Flying Saucers" included on Youngstown Vortex Sutra.

– I think "Murder In The Choir' is the strangest song on the album. It's almost sounds as if it's sung in Italian with all of the clever musical terms & phrases. I particularly like the line Terry sings " the killer had vibrato on his breath" To me it sounds like an hysterical Frankie Laine having a bad trip on LSD! It is very funny & cracks me up!

 – Despite the current world economic problems, I tend to be pretty optimistic about the Deadbeat Poets future. We have been very lucky the past few years.We have been fortunate enough to record a couple of good albums, we got in USA Today, we toured England & Scotland, played SXSW Festival, we have played a lot of places in America,, we've had some serious Sirius airplay, & are going out again for a major tour. Things are looking better & better & we hear from fans all over the world.We have improved musically over the past few years by leaps & bounds.Our songwriting keeps getting better & better & we can't wait to record again.We have been having a pretty good career.

Our next album will be tentatively called "Apples & Snowballs". Some of the titles will be Terry's classic "Down With The Lonely Boys" & "The New, New Amphetamine Shriek!" and my songs "The Black Light Room" & Apples & Snowballs" & "A Personal Business Matter". It will be a large dose of humorous psychedelic, power pop, folk & midwestern-rock & very, very different from what we have done. We will start recording again soon.