Somewhere in the Middle

According to the biography issued with Eric Martin's 2014 British tour dates, the songs on this album were written during a two-year break in Mr. Big's activity, and the album was released in 1998 in Asia and Europe. In Japan it came out on Atlantic through East West Japan in May 1998 (AMCY 2710); Atlantic also issued a European CD (7567-83108-2), and cassettes appeared in Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia. The Japanese edition came with a fold-out insert carrying liner notes and lyrics in Japanese. Bill Wray produced and mixed the album, with Duane Seykora recording and mixing it; the recording was done at Track Record, the mixing at Brooklyn Recording Studio, and Gavin Lurssen mastered it. Guitarist Tim Pierce and drummer Denny Fongheiser play on all eleven songs, Jerry Scheff and John Pierce share the bass parts, and the keyboard players are Jeffery CJ Vanston, Bill Payne and Dillon O'Brian. Martin plays acoustic guitar on nine of the songs, piano on the title track and Wurlitzer on "Over My Heart". Martin is a writer on ten of the eleven songs, nine of them with André Pessis. Marti Frederiksen co-wrote the title track and plays guitar and sings backing vocals on it, "That's What I'm Here For" was written with Tony Fanucchi, who had co-written five songs on Eric Martin in 1985, and "Don't Count Me Out" with Bob Thiele, Dillon O'Brian and Phil Roy. "Better Day", by Bill Wray and Jon Bevo, is the one song Martin did not write. The Japanese edition adds a twelfth track, the bonus "I Wrote the Book" by Martin and Pessis, played by Kenny Gradney, Bill Payne, Richie Hayward, Fred Tackett, Paul Barrere and Sam Clayton. The European edition has "I Love the Way You Love Me" as its twelfth track; a Japanese CD of that title had appeared in 1997.