“Hiding in Plain Sight” almost didn’t happen at all. Frustrated and insecure with his own singing voice prior to the pandemic, Drugdealer founder and primary songwriter Michael Collins was nearly ready to throw in the towel. Then, amidst the windswept art colony of Marfa, Texas, a chance encounter with the visionary artist and composer Annette Peacock changed his outlook. While attending Mexican Summer’s Marfa Myths festival, Collins ran into Peacock backstage. “I was so inspired by [Annette]. But similarly to all these other vocalists I’d worked with, I didn’t feel like I had it in me.” he recalls. “I told her my plight, then I played her a song, and she told me I wasn’t singing high enough for my speaking voice. When I returned to LA, I started coming up with new progressions, which I’d modulate up three half steps. It forced me to find a new way to sing.”
In the valley of the shadow of doubt, during a period when Collins was considering giving up on music and embarking on his lifelong dream of filmmaking, a furtive conversation with a legend allowed him to find his own distinctive voice.
On “Hiding in Plain Sight”, Collins steps forward leading a collaborative group of players through Pacific Coast Highway cruisers, power pop, roadhouse country, trench coat jazz, and late night soul investigating the journey of life and love, of self acceptance and understanding your place in a world of change.
If the pandemic resembled a lost weekend full of messy midnight jams, the unsung LA songwriter Scott Archdale was Michael Collins’ natural counterpart. The two friends spent countless nights writing and singing songs when there wasn’t much else to do. “Lip Service,” the brilliant new single from Drugdealer, was written by Collins and Archdale as “normal life” resumed, the night before Drugdealer set out on its first post-shutdown tour.
As they had so many nights before, the duo sat down at Collins’ studio off Sunset in Echo Park without much of a plan. That night, “Lip Service” flowed out with a giddy urgency, recalling Lowe and Costello at their most threadbare. The song’s unnamed object of desire could be a new friend, a love interest, or, simply, the chance to roam free once again.
released March 14th, 2023
The Fat Angel Sings 