Album artwork for all-is-phantom
Artwork by
Agam Neiman

Goodbye

from All is Phantom

June 1st, 2018
10 tracks
63:28
All is Phantom
All is Phantom
Goodbye
0:00
8:06
Goodbye
Ghostbound
You left me at the cusp of true adulthood, and yet I was far too young to be thrust into the gaping maw of a breathing world that I am so afraid of Goodbye To the stories in bed Goodbye to the actor in my head Goodbye... Goodbye... I wish I could introduce you to all the good people I have met, music I have heard, and films I have seen since then, but most of all I wish that I had the chance to say... Goodbye To the years you were in my life Goodbye to when I call in times of strife Goodbye... Goodbye... I banish every thought of you for fear that I would be seen to be too vulnerable, but the very thought of you gives me power. Your ghost is what I feel behind me. It gives me the strength to say... Goodbye To all the gray hairs in the sink Goodbye To conversations over which we would never drink Goodbye... Goodbye... In my heart of hearts I know that you were at peace in the end. As you slowly went to sleep, never to wake up again and we on the ground lifted our heads up to the sky. We dared not say the word... Goodbye To the father I love Goodbye to the boy down below Goodbye... Goodbye... And for the first time in my life I feel that I am at a loss for words but inwardly I am screaming, begging, crying to be heard. Yet no sound emits from this throat, dry from crying. I refuse to say... ...and eternally I will be waiting for a sign, a glimmer of recognition within a dying star in a darkened sky, but it is one final breath, a shudder, a forceful closing of the eyes. I am now prepared to say... ...Goodbye...
7:36

Our debut record, 15 years in the making. I (Alec, the band's hopelessly pedantic frontperson) started writing for this record in late 2002 as a means of exploring the kind of music I could only hear in my head. After innumerable life experiences, stops, starts, branching pathways, and personal tragedies, I saw fit to return to these songs in 2013 with the intent of finally finishing what was to be my life's work up until that point, mostly as a tribute to my late father, who had passed away in 2012, and to see if I could actually do it. The goal was to create a big, expansive record that encompassed an entire "other-world" filled with its own sense of danger, beauty, and ugliness in equal measure, and to make the kind of record my father and I would have loved to listen to together. I feel like I accomplished these goals. I put every bit of myself (and a not-inconsiderable amount of money) into this record.

All is Phantom would eventually be released in June of 2018 by a record label that did not have our best interests at heart, and I was and remain disappointed that it was not promoted in a way that I felt (and still feel) it truly deserved. Still, it has taken on a life of its own, and I can sleep well at night with the knowledge that I accomplished everything I set out to do on levels both aesthetic and personal. I knew, then, that the work was truly beginning, and that the true challenge would be to follow it up. - Alec

Credits

In loving memory of Timothy James Head (12/23/1947 - 8/9/2012)

All music and words by Alec A. Head

Alec A. Head - All voices, guitars
Noah Shaul - Bass

Session players:

David E. Richman - Drums
Valeriya Sholokhova - Cello
Natalia Barnaby Steinbach - Violin

Produced by Alec A. Head
Engineered and Mixed by Jesse Cannon and Mike Oettinger at Cannon Found Soundation in Union City, NJ from 9/15 to 8/16.
Mastered by Jesse Cannon

Logo by Unexpected Specter

Artwork by Agam Neiman

Layout by Diana Yee