Paint It White

These songs were made to cut myself some slack. I was feeling the pressures of my life in this moment, thinking those pressures were shrinking all the space I had to create, maybe getting a little guarded, even resentful, about my time. So I made time. Some might say I stole it. I slacked off, making music when I should’ve been doing everything else. I stayed up late. I skipped lunch. I missed that day at the beach, that movie, that moment.

Of course, the project began imposing its own pressures. Things came to be a little less loose. But in the beginning, I played. I got myself a new toy, a loop pedal, and I documented the process of learning to make loops. Some of those musical artifacts would become the spores that eventually found a ground to grow songs, sometimes subsumed by the outgrowth, sometimes integral to the organism. I tried to let it all take shape organically – every song, but also the way the songs turned into something together.

No matter the results, I’ve been hoping all along that I’ve been making music that’s slack, a hope inspired by Martin Arnold’s idea, which I stumbled upon last year, that “When music is slack it does not thoroughly enforce completion. It stays open to be explored, co-created by the listener.” And so now I’m inviting you to ignore your responsibilities, shirk your duties, and explore these things, this thing, for a little while.