Long Island Sound: Cauley's 'Stirrings' stirs up emotions

For Chris P. Cauley, it's about the love of music.

"I know it's not for everyone, but my heart and soul is in all of it," the singer-songwriter from Patchogue says about his new EP, "Stirrings." "Not all of it is pretty and beautiful all the time, but it always has some soul."

Though Cauley has been a fixture on the Patchogue music scene for years, including several bands and his stint running the open mic night at the Brickhouse Brewery, "Stirrings" is the first EP he's decided to work to promote beyond his live appearances.

"I was just so happy with how it turned out," Cauley says. "Every single note is me. I play all the instruments on the CD, and I recorded it in my home studio. I think it sounds really good for a guy recording in his pajamas."

"Stirrings" takes Cauley's love of Sonic Youth and The Cure and indie rock and welds it to some pop-leaning songs. The results range from "Guess It's True," which sounds like mid-'80s Sonic Youth, and "What to Do," which is drenched in Bowie glam, to the potent "About Loving You," which could have come from the latest Interpol album.

Like all of Cauley's EPs, "Stirrings" is available for free on his website, chrispcauley.com. However, he has decided he also will let Paradiddle Records release a CD version.

To get more people to hear "Stirrings," Cauley, who has played drums with many artists from the Patchogue scene, including Jay Scott and Nina Romano, has assembled a band to play area shows when his schedule as a special-education teacher at Samoset Middle School in Lake Ronkonkoma allows.

"I just think I hit the mark this time," he says.

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