This album is special to me because it may be the last time I get to spend uninterrupted time on a project. With a new civil service job and a toddler in the house and twins on the way, my free time for writing, engineering, recording and performing my songs is a diminishing concept. That being said, I'm glad I had the time to devote to this collection of 19 songs.
These songs were all pretty much written in my head and then hashed out with instruments into their final states. My last album was from 2013 so these songs have been developing, part by part, instrument by instrument, song by song since then. In September of 2017, I had a period of unemployment for 6 months from the aviation industry that began by a work lead dropping a small turbine engine on me which sent me storming out of the place swearing and yelling. This became the perfect time for me to spend time with my new daughter and to push to the finish line for this album. At the time, probably about 60% of the songs were at least 90% done and the remaining 40% of the songs needed arrangement, lyrics, drums, guitars, vocals and whatnot. The way it works with me is, I usually have lots and lots of started songs existing on my computer and I work at them bit by bit, sometimes skipping from song to song at whim. I usually also have completed songs that just haven't been placed onto an album. When I realize that I have enough songs that go along with each other for an album, I start the push to finish all the songs, round them all up and release an album. With the conception of the songs "Manual Control" and "Bean Bag Nights", I knew that my list of songs would make a complete object. For this one, I wanted to make a really long listening experience, inspired by Frank Black's "Teenager of the Year" album. Tracking at over 71 minutes, this is my longest album to date.
Musically speaking, the album is a good snapshot of my current journey into whatever direction I'm going in. Since my method of writing involves remembering the melodies and rhythms that pop into my head at random, they tend to have catchy melodies. If an idea comes to me and I can't remember it the next day, it probably wasn't worth creating. I've been really influenced by Deerhoof lately and they've caused me to create more experimental textures and chord combinations. Even though I would classify myself as a horrible guitarist, there are quite a bit of strong guitar riffs (not just textures) on this album. I've been better at writing lyrics that I can live with instead of wincing at. I've been better at scrapping lyrics that don't work and re-writing them to fit better. I've been better at storytelling in my songs. I've been better at recording drums, selecting different snare/bass drum/toms and tunings/mic placement to properly fit each song. I've actually cut songs from the song list that weren't working. For the past 4 or 5 months, I've been listening to the finished version of this album and it has not gotten old and there aren't songs on it that I fast forward through. I'm pretty happy with this collection of songs and of course, I've already got another album kind of planned out and I'm looking forward to finding time to make that too!
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