Maximum Overdub has announced the release of Field Trip, the second solo album from producer, composer, and keyboard virtuoso Zach Tenorio. Alongside the announcement comes the infectious new single “What’d It Take,” a vibrant glimpse into the record’s creative whirlwind.
Tenorio has long been known for his fearless musicality—a performer whose stage presence feels like electricity in motion, with a sound that’s equal parts virtuoso precision and joyful chaos. From the moment he began touring at age 16 with Jon Anderson of YES, Tenorio’s career has been defined by collaboration and experimentation. Over the years, he’s worked with artists such as Willow Smith (co-writing a Grammy-nominated song from her latest album), Kimbra, Guster, Gene Ween, and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, while also holding down his role in the adventurous art-pop band Arc Iris and jamming with the improvisational collective Taper’s Choice.
On Field Trip, Tenorio distills that kinetic energy into 21 tracks spanning 30 minutes—a dazzling, genre-defying blend of analog warmth and futuristic exploration. Imagine Rick Wakeman colliding with the LA beat scene, or Hermeto Pascoal reimagined through the lens of J Dilla. There are flashes of 70s funk, bursts of moody organ, psychedelic synth runs, and unexpected samples of Tenorio’s own voice. The result is an album that feels alive—vivid, unpredictable, and deeply human.
The project began unintentionally. During the late-pandemic era, Tenorio found himself in a creative limbo—unsure when live music would fully return. To stay connected, he began posting spontaneous musical sketches online: playful, funky, often brilliant snippets that captured the joy of making music in real time. Over time, those sketches evolved into a cohesive body of work. “It wasn’t originally supposed to be a record,” Tenorio explains. “But I realized I was in a creative flow I really liked. I started pulling ideas back in—catching fish, so to speak—and turning them into songs.”
Despite its digital origins, Field Trip doesn’t worship technology. Instead, it revels in the human impulse to create. “The fact that so many of us have to post online to be seen is a bummer,” Tenorio admits. “But I tried to make it fun.” The result is a record that feels like scrolling through an algorithm designed by a musician rather than a machine—unexpected, full of joy, and endlessly curious.
Like his hero Hermeto Pascoal, Tenorio resists easy categorization. “When people hear my music, they find it hard to pinpoint,” Pascoal once said. “When they think I’m doing one thing, I’m already doing something else.” The same could be said for Field Trip: a playful, prismatic exploration of sound that captures the thrill of discovery and the freedom of creative expression.
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