Behind the Record: The Beginning

It all happened so fast. Brooks Miner and I had been rehearsing since February. In April, we made our first appearance as a duo at the Cosmic Joke Collective show, where we played four songs. At the end of May, we traveled to Brooklyn to open a show for Anna Coogan and Eszter Balint. That same weekend we played a Sunday set at the Ithaca Festival. These were our first real gigs as a duo-- two great shows back to back. It was hard not to feel a sense of momentum that had been missing in my solo endeavors. After the Ithaca Festival show, Anna came over to where we were packing up our cases and said something to the effect of "Let's pack up the stuff and take it home, and then we're going to go have a drink and talk about how you're going to make this record happen."

This wasn't the first time Anna Coogan bossed me into something for my own good. Anna was the one who originally suggested (gently, but also again and again) that I should start playing music with Brooks. Interested as I was in adding another player to the mix, I wasn't sure it should be first on my to-do list. Shouldn't I be focusing on making a record instead? But it turns out Anna knew a few things I didn't. She knew that playing live with other musicians was a natural precursor to recording. This kind of informal collaboration forces some of the necessary steps that are so easy not to take when you are out there on your own. These steps include:

• Making a regular commitment to a practice time and location. In the dark weeks of February when Brooks and I started playing, I remember feeling intensely grateful that I had an appointment to play music with someone else, because I may not have otherwise made space for it in my life. 
• Charting out songs. I never had charts for my songs before working with Brooks. For some of them, I didn't even have a full written copy of the lyrics. Articulating the form and chords of my songs taught me so much about my own writing style. I learned all these idiosyncrasies I didn't even know I was doing: random bars of different meters and oddball chords thrown in otherwise simple songs. It also added a sense of concreteness to my songs, as though they existed in some way that other musicians would be able to understand and replicate. And obviously, this is work that must be done before you can go into the studio with other musicians.
• Creating new songs and reviving old ones. It's really not that fun to show up week after week and play the same handful of songs. At least not for me. Rehearsing with Brooks applied just enough pressure on me to dig through my song bag and chart out new things. This came in handy when we needed to come up with a list of potential songs for the record.
• Getting gigs on the books. It's also more fun to rehearse when there's a gig on the horizon, so practicing with Brooks made me more proactive about reaching out to venues and booking shows. As it turns out, making a record is basically managing a complex project that involves a bunch of people, many of them working remotely. Proactive communication skills are absolutely necessary. Plus playing more shows tightens everything up and adds the magic of momentum.
• Feeling less precious about the material. This was probably the most important aspect for me. Inviting someone else to be a part of the performance meant that they would really get to know my songs. They might even (gasp) form opinions about them. This seems obvious, but when you're toiling in obscurity with no recorded music to your name, you can naturally avoid a lot of the fear and risk that comes from putting yourself out there in a lasting way. As a solo performer, I at least had the illusion that I was in charge of the experience. Adding Brooks to the equation gave me a taste of what it feels like to put a record out into the world-- I had to let go of any pretense that I was in control of the experience others had with my music. Plus, having another person involved in the performance of my songs helped me to see them in more objective, less sentimental ways. When you go to record, it doesn't pay to be precious with your songs. 
• Playing with Brooks is awesome. Brooks is a great musician: sensitive, adaptable, and disciplined. His dedication to this project has been staggering. He basically tracked the whole record twice (once on piano/electric piano, and once on organ), plus he sat in on countless listening sessions during the mixing phase and gave incredibly thoughtful feedback. Anna and Brooks both had experience working on a variety of recording projects, so they both knew exactly what the general steps were and started guiding me through the process long before we entered the studio.

So while I didn't realize it at the time, the first seeds of this record were sown when Brooks and I began practicing together in February. The rest were planted in that Brooklyn/Ithaca Festival weekend a little less than a year ago. All the gear packed up, we walked downtown and Anna began spelling out to me the imperative of making an album. Rich Bennett and Rebecca Pronsky, the proprietors of Acme Hall Studios, had come to the show in Brooklyn that Friday and mentioned casually that Brooks and I should come record sometime. By the end of the evening Sunday, those plans were no longer casual. Anna talked me through the process while Brooks blocked out potential dates at the studio. I sipped my beer and nodded my head, mostly. Two months later we were headed to the studio with an album's worth of songs to lay down. I couldn't have asked for a better band-member in Brooks, or a better Producer/Musical Sherpa in Anna. Without the generosity of these two people, this record simply wouldn't have happened.

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Now the record is finished: mixed, mastered, pressed, shrink-wrapped, and in boxes in my living room. The release date is 5/10, less than a week now, but you can get your paws on it before that in one of two ways:

1) Pre-order the CD here. Or you can pre-order CDs and/or digital versions here (this is the only option for International Shipping). 

2) Come to the ALBUM RELEASE SHOW in Ithaca, this Saturday, May 7th at Casita Del Polaris. Doors are at 7, music at 8. The $10 cover will get you a digital download of the album, plus there will be CDs available at a special one-night-only price :) And you'll get to hear Brooks and I play every song on the record and then some. 

As always, I have unending gratitude to you for reading, listening, showing up, and otherwise supporting this work.

​See you out there.

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