New York musician John Brodeur has made a reputation as a talented recording artist, composer of first-class alternative pop songs, and a restless multi-instrumentalist. On April 5, 2011, John will release Tiger Pop Ten, a 2-CD set featuring a newly recorded version of his debut album coupled with a 10th-anniversary reissue of the original disc. Released at the beginning of 2001, Tiger Pop was performed entirely by Brodeur, a true one-man-band effort in a time before everyone with a laptop could make that claim. The newly recorded Tiger Pop Ten sprung from a long-running what if between Brodeur and the members of his longtime band, The Suggestions. Keith (Hosmer, bass) and Jay (Schultz, drums) and I would often kid around about re-recording Tiger Pop, says Brodeur. Having a rhythm section behind the tunes gave them a new life. Some grooved differently, while others sounded like entirely different songs. To cut a new version of the record would have been cost-prohibitive but it was an attractive idea. It certainly appealed to the part of me that doesn"t know how to settle on finished. The Suggestions split in 2007 after a few years of low activity. Brodeur"s second solo album, Get Through, started as a Suggestions project in 2004, didn"t receive a proper release until 2009. Another Brodeur band, Maggie Mayday, came and went in the intervening years. He spent much of the second half of the decade earning the Iron Man tag, serving as drummer for as many as five bands at one time, and producing and recording with a number of artists. By 2010, Tiger Pop had been out of print for nearly five years. Brodeur had already planned to reissue the album for its tenth birthday, and set the process in motion by setting up a campaign through fund-raising website PledgeMusic.com. The original plan was to simply tack a few lost tracks and new recordings onto the original disc. I had always wanted to try adding string accompaniment to a few tunes, especially Masterpiece, which wasn"t originally on Tiger Pop but was written just as the album was completed. Over the course of a few months, the Suggestions, now living in three different cities, decided to reconvene in upstate New York to play a show and record a couple tracks for the reissue. We got on a roll, says Brodeur. I left town a few days later with eight songs all but finished. Shortly after, Brodeur reassembled his other main band of recent years, Maggie Mayday, at a studio in New York City, and recorded the remaining three Tiger Pop songs in one afternoon. Composer-pianist Adrian Cohen volunteered to provide string arrangements and some piano, while several friends and acquaintances were called on to add color to the project. Troy Pohl (Sean Rowe, Kamikaze Hearts) mixed and mastered the record. Tiger Pop Ten is, then, a logical bookend to Brodeur"s first 10 years as a solo artist: From the DIY indie-pop aesthetic of the debut release, through a series of aborted band projects, and back again with a fresh perspective and the participation of friends. It"s a celebration of the musical and personal relationships that went into it, Brodeur says. As indulgent as it seems, it"s in no way meant as a replacement for the original record. It just so happened that we were able to make this quickly and cheaply, and it seemed like a good idea at the time.