I can't believe this is album number nine! I look back, and I've come so far. I'd say my composing has gotten much more skilled and masterful since, say, Occultation, or even Revolutions. It feels like it started really evolving with my sixth album, Dialectical Observations, when I consciously started attempting a more neoclassical tone. In that way, it feels like my sixth album should have been my first, but then we wouldn't have songs such as "Slowly Scooting Closer" and "The Cloud Walkers," and we couldn't have that, could we? No, my songwriting has been growing at its own pace and produced many gems along the way, but it has been growing, and I think with this album I've produced some of my best work yet. When I felt that Saturn Ascending was right up there with Dialectical Observations as one of my favorite things I'd ever done, I felt I was making a major achievement. And now I feel I've created another comparable album.
There's a certain amount of self-congratulating here. I've been incredibly persistent with this music business, and because of that persistence, I've been growing as an artist. I've been doing this for almost five years, at which point I plan to measure my success and think seriously about whether I should be devoting so much time and energy into this. But it's the most fulfilling thing I've been doing. There is more to life than music, however. And there are other career paths that could complement my music. I've thought a lot about a sound engineering school in Arizona over the past couple of years. And I have family that wants me to move to Tennessee. There's also friends that want me to move to Brighton, England. But what I really want is a path that will take me back to the Pacific Northwest, or maybe even elsewhere along the United States West Coast. But I'd need a much more lucrative career for that option. And so far, my music hasn't been making me a whole lot of money. Just enough to keep on publishing it, really. But I always hope that something will give and it will gain much wider exposure and recognition.
I got my 2019 Spotify Wrapped, and that was both encouraging and discouraging. Discouraging because I don't have a ton of followers, but I did reach people in the hundreds across sixty-two countries. If I look at Spotify as only a fraction of my audience, and take into account all the other streaming platforms, then I think I could be moderately impressed with myself. I get weekly feedback from Apple Music, and those numbers always amuse and impress me. My songs get Shazamed quite a bit, and it's funny to me which ones are enjoying the most popularity, because it's often unexpected. Okay, "Fleeting Fractals" is kind of a given, as my most popular song, but "Man Seeking Cocoon"? And "Roundabout"? Those are kind of out of left field.
But this is all numbers. The true measure of my success is that I touch some lives, that my music is genuinely adored by some, and that it fulfills me to create it.
And so here we are nine albums later. This wasn't even supposed to be an album. You know my formula is usually to release two EPs, and then a full-length album. But this has been a busy season of songwriting for me. I had seven songs and the release date set. Those seven songs were "Jade's Theme," "Milkweed," "My Secret Life," "Allure," "Germing," "Causality," and "Discordia." But in rare form, I wrote "Empathica" and "The White Lands" each in one day, and I really wanted them to have a place on the EP. But if it was truly going to be an EP, I should limit it to seven tracks, and so then I would have to choose two to replace. That was proving to be a really hard decision, so I thought maybe I should just release a nine-track album. After all, Dialectical Observations is only nine tracks. But there were also certain songs from the EP Compromises that I wanted to include on a full-length album: "For Simplicity's Sake," "What the Hell," and "Bare Arms." With those three songs, I could have a respectable twelve-track album. So I put it to a vote on Facebook: seven tracks, nine tracks, or twelve tracks. Everyone voted twelve, including my reason for releasing the album on the 18th.
Yes, this album goes out to a special someone, one of my oldest friends and sometimes lover, Bryant Mansell. I love you, man. Happy birthday. Thanks for all the years.
I have to confess, though, that this version of "Jade's Theme" was written for my mom's birthday. There's a longer version of it that transitions from the cello into the usual piano. For the purposes of this album, though, I kept it short and eerie. It seemed strange to me not to transition into something fast-paced and harder hitting, but "Bare Arms" was a natural fit, also being slow and somewhat eerie, and I do believe it introduces the piano and electronic elements of the album rather well. And I introduce the guitars and the more metallic elements of the album next in "Milkweed." After that, the album switches moods from song to song, and I just based the transitions on how well the beginnings and ends of songs fit together.
It may not sound like it, but the inspiration for "For Simplicity's Sake" and "Causality" were actually taken from the same piece of music, a simple piano theme that plays on the DVD menu of season one of Falling Skies. I guess "For Simplicity's Sake" just took it in a lighter direction, and "Causality" in a darker and harder direction.
For this album, I drew inspiration from other songs of mine, sometimes recycling piano riffs. For example, "Discordia" revolves around a brief interlude from "Germing." "The White Lands" comes from the closing refrain of "Empathica." "My Secret Life" comes from the opening notes of "Dark Highways." I don't think of this as regurgitating more of the same. This is more like the further exploration of certain themes. Each of these songs became something completely different than their source material. "My Secret Life" is probably most similar to "Dark Highways," but it goes in a radically metallic direction, inspired by Nine Inch Nails. I also took a page from "What the Hell" and translated the piano to electric guitar in two octaves.
Speaking of which, I remastered "What the Hell" for this album, focusing specifically on trying to clarify that there are two electric guitars in two octaves at work during its initial hardcore burst. I also remastered "Bare Arms" for this album to try and bring out the bass synth a bit more, and an electronic "blat" that inserts itself in lines of the percussion.
"Discordia," "What the Hell," and "My Secret Life" are probably this album's "hardcore" songs. There's metallic elements in other songs, but no straight-up metal interludes. For example, there's heavy guitar in "Empathica," but that's more of a trip-hop song, heavily inspired by beats by Thom Yorke. "Allure" has percussive distorted guitar, but it's definitely a neoclassical tune, with its own trip-hoppy beat and heavy bass synth. "Germing" has an electric guitar solo and a few chords, but is again a straightforward neoclassical ballad. And "Causality" has a hard rock solo, but definitely leans toward darker trip-hop.
If you've read Stephen King's The Dark Tower series, you may note that a few of the song titles are taken from settings in those books. The series got me through one of the darkest periods of my life, when I was largely couch-bound for over a year after an intense hospitalization. They inspired me to release my debut EP on the 19th of February. Well, I'm rereading the series - on the final book right now - and "Allure," "Discordia," "Empathica," and "The White Lands" all owe their titles to settings in the books.
I had this album all set to go by December 5th, hoping to get it into the distributor that day, for a simultaneous release across the board. However, it was not to be. To match the cover art for the "My Secret Life" single, I again commissioned artist Zach Shattuck for the cover art. However, the art wasn't ready by the 5th. I had backup art by Cyril Rolando in mind, but I really wanted "My Secret Life" and Black Leather and Sugarcane to go together. So I decided to exercise patience and let the chips fall where they may. However, when he told me he could have something ready on the 8th, and then the 9th came, I started to panic. He confessed to me that inspiration had failed to strike him, and offered to let me use something he'd already created instead. I told him to send me something that felt like a fit for the album, and this was one of the options he sent me:
When I was going to bring out some purple in the image, he got inspired to play with color filters. He came up with the orange starscape that was used in the final cover, chosen because it's a better color match for "My Secret Life" (and because orange is one of my favorite colors).
Because of the artwork delay, the album wasn't released everywhere at once on midnight of the 18th. Right now you can find it at YouTube and YouTube Music, Spotify, Google Play, Apple Music and iTunes, Amazon, Deezer, iHeartRadio, Napster, Pandora, and TIDAL.
That's it for now. I already have seven songs written toward a new EP, though not all of them may be included, and others may be written. I've been finishing songs almost within twenty-four hours lately, and writing multiple songs a week. At this rate, I could have another full-length album by February! But I highly doubt I'm going to do that. After skipping an EP in favor of a longer release, I think it's time to do something short and sweet. That could be coming to you as early as sometime in January...I'll have to check friends' birthdays. But for the moment, I'm planning on the anniversary of Sunward/Moonward, February 5th. Until then, may your inner snails remain resilient and determined.
P.S. Here's a bonus song guaranteed to be on the next EP to make you feel a little extra special!
