Nearly a decade has slipped by since The Disappearing Act had new music to share, but in those intervening years, the duo has become a trio.
Salim Nourallah and Bob Blumenfeld have welcomed another Dallas creative to the fold, the tireless John Dufilho, who appears on the new single, “Why Is Everybody So Damn Happy?,” which KXT is pleased to premiere below, along with the video for the track.
“For those who know me, they might be shocked when they hear the ebuillent sax solo on this track,” Nourallah told KXT in an exclusive statement. “I’ve always been violently opposed to using tenor saxophone when it came to my own music. ‘Why Is Everybody So Damn Happy?’ is my reaction to the ridiculously happy, upbeat groove Bob Blumenfeld and John Dufilho came up with.
“When I first heard it, I thought, ‘I can’t actually write anything for this …’ I later had the thought … it might be interesting, and kind of funny, if the ‘singer’ (me) was in a completely opposite emotional state than the music. … So that’s what I set about doing.”
The track is taken from the band’s third and forthcoming album, An Illusion, due out Sept. 27. Illusion marks an expansion — sort of. Dufilho is credited with drums and percussion on the group’s previous record, 2015’s Born to Say Goodbye, but he’s graduated from contributor to full-fledged member.
“It was Dufilho who really saved The Disappearing Act,” Nourallah said in press materials. “Bob’s always generating musical ideas, and he and Dufilho started collaborating, with John fleshing out those ideas and making instrumentals. When I finally heard some of them, I immediately heard song songs, vocals and lyrics. … It was actually incredibly easy for me to come up with ideas, because the backing tracks they’d made were so good, so interesting — it was lots of fun.”
For his part, Dufilho — whose creative plate is already stuffed with his own multiplicity of projects, to say nothing of his gig as an engineer at Nourallah’s Pleasantry Lane studio — confirmed the freewheeling nature of conjuring Illusion.
“Bob had a whole lot of random pieces, mostly rhythm guitar recorded to a click track,” Dufilho said in press materials. “He didn’t send me five tracks — he sent me more like 50. He trusted me 100 percent. And there was no real end game, just music for the sake of music, which I absolutely love.”
Preston Jones is a North Texas freelance writer and regular contributor to KXT. Email him at [email protected] or find him on X (@prestonjones). Our work is made possible by our generous, music-loving members. If you like how we lift up local music, consider becoming a KXT sustaining member right here.
