magic for other people

Category: music

  • that dream was our life retrospective 49: time is the light that strings us through the fog

    released on 10/20/2023, spend it all was my second ep of the year & my 49th overall. the title track might have worked if it was recorded by a band but when you’re the only musician, “rocking out” feels a little hollow. “paint the walls” was built around the wonder/fear of a new relationship & something rae’s mom told me: “some people live desperate lives”. “time is the light” suffers from the same thing “spend it all” does—i couldn’t give it the energy it needed & it just kind of plods along. there’s also an out of tune guitar in it that drives me insane. it has a nice piano part & outro though. “fathoms” is a nice closer & i am proud of the line “if you’re lost in the sky i’ll be your cloud”.

    the cover is a photo i took while running out at coyote point near sfo. it was unseasonably hot for july & there were some areas where the briny, dank smell of stagnant seawater was overwhelming. there was a lot of trash & construction, & i remember seeing an fitness influencer-type couple on the path. i had the cover of american music club’s “the restless stranger” in mind when I edited the photo to a deep blue duotone. in reality it was much brighter.

    two good songs & two decent ideas that probably needed more work or a better recording. 5.5/10.

  • i gave up all my doubt for something far away

    premonition was released on this day in 2022 as my fourth ep of the year & 46th overall. a few months earlier i had sold all of my furniture & moved into rae’s house after ten years at my old place. i reached a point where i was ready to leave a lot of things behind or at least start something new & these songs are certainly of that spirit.

    i wrote “gone” while driving 20 hours from tacoma to montana to salt lake city. the 360 degrees of big sky & empty stretches between tiny towns were as mind-numbing as they were beautiful. my friend & collaborator Synesthete remixed “gone” & it’s still my most popular track to date. not that i am popular but it’s all relative. “tout désir devient concret” came to me in a dream, nearly fully intact, following a trip to new orleans. i woke up & recorded it pretty much as it is here. “everything is borrowed in the end” was composed on michelle’s piano in richmond & you can hear some of that voice note in the intro. i wore that summer like a cloak. mcmurray played banjo on “keep the wolves at bay” & it’s one of my favorite songs.

    the cover photo was taken during a pre-dawn run at the navy yard. it was a thick, humid morning & i was whining about how unbearable the sun would be when it came out. however, when it rose it stayed behind a perfectly placed cloud. we create our own problems sometimes.

    this is one of probably six eps that i would consider among the best. 9/10.

  • some fates are better than most

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    “some fates” was the 41st that dream was our life ep & released in early october 2021. if there was a theme tying these songs together it’s one of decline, entropy, & things reaching their natural conclusion. i like how the ep flows from bitterness & desperation to honesty & acceptance. “bats don’t want your blood” was written after a picnic in independence park in 2020. night & shadow descending on a group of friends trying to hold things together during the pandemic. “some are beautiful…” has an inexplicable sax outro but i think it works. the intro to “self-preservation is the coward’s art” was recorded as i was waiting for my turn while playing werewolf over zoom (another relic from the pandemic). you can hear frank playing the narrator faintly. it’s a lesson to always keep your guitar in tune because you never know when you’ll need it! “harana” translated, is a filipino serenade & while it may be a little on the nose, it says everything i want to say.

    this is a good ep. 7/10.