When Drew Henkels awakes in the middle of the night, it’s not an inconvenience, but an inspiration. In fact, insomnia may be the best career move the singer/songwriter and sole member of Drew & the Medicinal Pen has made. “A lot of the images in my music, art, and films come from my dreams,” says Henkels, who keeps a dream log. “I start writing when I’m half asleep and I’ll wake up and start writing.”

Approximately one year ago, up-and-coming folk/pop solo artist Drew & the Medicinal Pen, a reference to the therapeutic qualities of writing and drawing, released his debut EP, Dream, Dream, Fail, Repeat, exploring the ideas of survival and dreaming. “I'd describe the music as New York City insomnia, cigarette-butts-in-Chinese-food, drawing-dreams, vodka-breath bedroom pop,” says Henkels, who has played 30 shows over the past two years in the Brooklyn area alone.

From the cheerful harmonica in the album’s opening track, “Hole in My Sail,” to the last acoustic guitar strum of “The Long War,” Henkels gives the listener a feeling of fulfillment. “A City Was Born,” tells a quick history of modern society being built, all the way through to its subtle downfall: “Innovation turned to smoke / as the people churned, engines pumped.” Like the rest of the album, the song’s rhythm has an optimistic quality that makes you want to shimmy to the beat—especially when the xylophone chimes down the octaves on “Pins + Needles,” or during the stop-and-go of the broken-chorded chorus of “Merry-go-round.” But don’t be fooled by the folk rhythm and the clap-along campfire beat—the lyrics are not always as happy as the instruments lead listening ears to believe. Dream, Dream, Fail, Repeat recants a journey of struggle against the world and the need to break free from society to achieve one’s goals.

Henkels is not just a musician, but an artist who has created all of the artwork that appears on the album and on fliers for his shows. He also experiments with film , creating abstract shorts to be presented independently of his music gigs. Henkels even hosted a Homemade Music Video festival, on March 27th, at the Grasslands in Brooklyn that featured live bands and their videos.

Though Drew & the Medicinal Pen is not affiliated with any music label, Henkels is compelled to do whatever he must to put his music out there. “I’ve pretty much funded the whole record by doing odd jobs like silk-screening shirts and playing the subway.” Even with the album becoming the only non-full-length album featured in the New Jersey music personality Lazlo's Top 25 Records of 2007 and receiving radio play in Japan, Henkels goal is to become 100% self-sufficient and work on his own label before signing with a record company. Henkels has started posting new songs for his upcoming album on MySpace and will hit the road with a full band for his second East Coast tour in June.

Dream, Dream, Fail, Repeat can be purchased at Drew & the Medicinal Pen’s website: www.myspace.com/drewandthemedicinalpen.

Latest music video for “A City Was Born” can be found Drew Henkels’ YouTube site, where he posts performances and homemade films. http://youtube.com/user/Drew

by Rob M. Errera