ACT III

"Kismet was a blessing from heaven," Riley says. "It restored my faith in myself."

Recorded across various spaces at Cornell University, the sci-fi concept album was released to wide acclaim in the spring of 2016. Kismet coincided with a massive flurry of activity including marketing campaigns, performance rehearsals, and music video shoots. Notably, almost every individual involved with the production of Kismet was a student. "Cornell teaches you how to have three jobs and like it. You embrace your workoholism. I'd been working two for a decade, so my thought was, 'bring it on.'" 

The results were worth the labor. Press outlets across the area praised Kismet and the concert at which it made its live debut. For the first time, newspapers and radio stations graciously provided extensive coverage of Riley's work, vindicating over a decade of toil. After graduating from Cornell in May 2016, Riley spent the summer and fall preparing for his third album - Tabula Rasa. The title, a Latin phrase meaning "blank slate," was indicative of the zeitgeist as the 21st Century moved through its trying second decade.

"(We live in) an age in which many wish to see the slate wiped clean...many long for the ability to hit some master "reset" button on so many negative circumstances we find insurmountable," Riley said. "Our heroes are dying; our world is warming; our leaders are fools and our culture is split in two. Who wouldn't want to start over?"

Addressing everything from social justice to love in the the age of Tinder, Tabula Rasa reasserted Riley's ear for pop songcraft with timely subject matter - and massive hooks. After its release, an extensive set of live dates and promotional appearances began, including the release of two music videos. Thanks to the vivification of Kismet and Tabula Rasa, Riley continued at breakneck speed; the summer of 2017 saw Riley's first international airplay, when Tabula Rasa's lead single "Screwing Up The World" debuted on Sirius/XM Radio. That summer also saw the band's first forays into the greater New York concert scene, performing outside of their home base for the first time. Subsequently, they returned to Ithaca to perform at The CFCU Summer Concert Series, where Riley shed the Tabula Rasa image for new makes and new models. "For every release, there's an accompanying visual look," he notes. "The ever-changing wardrobe has cost me a small fortune, but I've gotten quite good at doing my own makeup." (laughs)

Upon completion of the Tabula Rasa period, Riley decided to bring the first period of his recording career (or the first panel of his "triptych", as he calls it) to a close. "Brighthead, Kismet, and Tabula Rasa were my first shot out into the expanse. Stylistically, they share a common thread which I needed to put to bed for a while." To wrap up the first decade of Riley's recording career, he decided to release 3 singles during the course of 2018, starting with the Valentine's Day celebration, Love Is In My Heart.

"Those singles were a bittersweet goodbye to the years I spent underground," Riley says. "And they encapsulated everything I celebrate as an artist - romance, perseverance, and defiance."

Love Is In My Heart, produced by Grammy-winning engineer Will Russell, quickly became one of Riley’s most celebrated releases. Coupled with a lush, ethereal music video, the song earned Riley his first cover story - and reinvigorated the singer. “It had always been an aspiration of mine, you know - to write something akin to a Great American Songbook entry. I didn’t use nearly as many chords (laughs), but mix together Nat King Cole and a synthesizer, and this is what you get.”

Shortly after the release of Love Is In My Heart, fortune smiled when Riley became acquainted with legendary drummer Sesu Coleman. Founder of pioneering NYC glam-punk act The Magic Tramps, Coleman toured with Suicide’s Alan Vega, and appeared on Vega’s albums Collision Drive and Sunset Strip. After bonding over their shared love of Brian Jones’ Rolling Stones and Chess Records, Coleman joined Riley’s live band in the spring of 2018.

With the lineup of Coleman, long-serving bassist Rick Kline (who also appeared on Tabula Rasa), and synthesizer wiz Charlie Jones, Riley set upon a busy live schedule across New York state, performing dozens of times throughout 2018. That September saw the release of Failure of Imagination, a lo-fi combination of hip-hop, dub, and glam. “The music video and costume for that period were directly inspired by Green Lantern (laughs),” Riley recalls. “And that’s really what the song was all about. Willpower. The refusal to bend in the face of those who belittle you.” Backed with the exclusive B-side “Ordinary Guy” - a meditation on existing in two worlds - the limited print run of CDs sold briskly.

During this time, press coverage expanded to the United Kingdom and Canada.

The final single in Riley’s first triptych would feature a funereal choir, a school bus with rocket engines, and a bevy of women dressed as the artist in his former incarnations.

Be Cool, released in December 2018, was custom-built as a kiss goodbye to the upbeat glam-pop Riley had become known for. “The chorus came to me while singing in the shower. I sing in there constantly, so I figured it was about time I wrote myself something to practice with.”

The jubilant music video featured Riley and his band being hunted down by his previous selves, dressed in costumes from his wardrobe archive. “We shot in the rain at the lovely rehearsal space we’d been renting, and had the good fortune to work with the Ithaca Physics Bus - a converted school bus which journeys around the region, helping inquisitive schoolchildren cultivate an interest in science.”

Featuring a cast of local fans and friends in the artistic community, Be Cool was also the very first recording Riley would do at New Vine Records, a singular recording studio and label in Central New York. New Vine artist Leo contributed backing vocals to the track, and Riley performed lap harp on the poignant CD-exclusive B-side, “Precious Angel”.

This would be the last recording in Riley’s first triptych - a decade-long journey.