** HEADS UP TIME CAPSULE **

In summer 2018 I had an idea for an album.

Basically I had songs lying around taking up space on the couch & eating all the snacks that I meant to record w. a Rock Band (tm) but for reason & another it didn't happen.

New plan:

Acoustic guitar singer-songwriter w. "strings" LP (or EP?) by which I mean MIDI-guitar, mostly through the iPad, because I did not have access to actual "strings". Figured the wonky tech in combo w. my brain would counter any overly-saccharine inherence to the concept & who knows I might get something beautiful.

Test drove the concept w. a cover of "Long Black Veil"—
soundcloud.com/5-track/long-black-veil

Sheridan R. was kind enough to borrow me the loan of some microphones—SM7 for vocal, a couple AKG pencils for guitar—& I did the rest w. my then extremely non-formidable available gear & knowhow.

There's 2-3 songs from Los Angeles circa 2013-14 (one appears in a very different arrangement on The Walking Faces' INVISIBLE PLANET cd cosmicprimitive.bandcamp.com/album/the-invisible-planet ),—the rest are from Seattle 2015-2018 including at least 2 written during what I seem to recall was a single afternoon of (basic) tracking—acoustic & lead vocal done live in a flash in a flash.*

* "Snogies" is either an improv or a chance-composition, I can't recall which, but I found it in spring 2023 while mixing what I thought would be a 7-song "album". Bonus for you.

Overdubs didn't take TOO long—MIDI guitar strings as aforementioned, then more actual guitars than I intended, & several heaping mounds of "background vocals" cos I do love that kind of thing. Aside from one electric guitar track I replaced this spring, everything was tracked by late fall.

No bass guitar—maybe the tiniest bit of baritone guitar or low-end MIDI keys or strings. Weird for me cos I do like some low end.

But maybe the weirdest thing about all this (for me) is, "no drums". Maybe in a few years if I get bored enough I'll go back & add them. (Maybe not though.)

I digress I digress.

Anyway it took me til 2023 to figure out wtf I was doing in terms of mixing to the point where I could make this sound close to right—between the poorly-recorded electric guitars in the first place,—& to understand what I was shooting for & how to get there more to the point. (Thanks to Jack E. for semi-wittingly teaching me most of everything I now know about how to get a good sound, or what one even is.)

Sooner or later it all worked out.

I don't feel like the person singing these songs anymore;—little wonder, it's been five years but also really a lot longer, in terms of my personal world & obviously the wider state of things. For myself, I'm in a better place now mostly though I spent time in worse places between. Can't speak for the rest of the planet. So here's a look back to a time when I felt terrible but didn't exactly know why, from a time when everything is terrible but I feel pretty good.

Hope this helps in some way.