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It’s Rainy And We Have To Save The Worms Liner Notes

The song is about a time when I was a kid, it was rainy and a bunch of worms were on the road. I thought I could save them by moving them off the asphalt on the road to the dirt in my yard. The guitar solo is the sort of awkward and naive attempt at gathering up all the worms to safety.

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They Took My Shampoo At The Border Liner Notes

The song's about the weird things that happen at border control and cultural differences, that arise when traveling. The two specific places being referenced are Dublin and Singapore.

Originally, the song more explicitly dealt with the two times I was given an ultimatum in exchange for an opportunity. First I was trying to find work in Singapore, and was offered a job as a web developer. This was great, as it was the work I wanted to do in a place I wanted to be. A rare combination! But I was warned that there was going to be frequent 10-12 hour days, and the interview gave me a sense of mismanagement. Also it was for a large Chinese bank, so… there was that negative too. All of this time being given to someone else when I wanted to live an explore a new place was not appealing.

I declined and ended up on the polar opposite spectrum of work. I was staying and living in a punk rock music venue/studio/hostel, which was totally rad. Also amazing work in an amazing place. But the guy there also required me to work and play music for 12 hours a day. Which just isn’t practical and not how I wanted live either. Both of these extremely different organizations wanting all of my time and I was unwilling to give it.

I never was able to write the lyrics about these events in a compelling manner, but had the pieces of a song and the airport travel half written. So I doubled down on that.

I had a collection of reusable cutlery that I kept in my backpack at all times, so I wouldn’t have to use plastic cutlery. Also its really nice to just run into a grocery store and grab some bread and cheese be able to cut it up and eat it in the park. But each airport security guard has a different attitude towards each utensil. My knife was quickly confiscated somewhere in Malaysia, my fork now resides in Singapore, and my spoon was recently taken in Turkey. Now all I’ve got are my chop sticks, which is a nice inclusion in such a kit!

They really did take my shampoo at the border in Manchester, UK on my way to Dublin.
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Photosynthesize Liner Notes

Photosynthesize is self-explanatory.

But the guitar solo quotes Pallet Town theme from the first Pokemon games.

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Tiny Purple Gudgeons Liner Notes

Purple Spotted Gudgeons (Mogurnda adspersa) are an endangered species of Australian fish. Similar to the Coelacanth, they were formerly thought to be extinct in the wild, but were rediscovered in 2002 in South East Australia. I thought they lived in the freshwater pools on Fraser Island, off the coast of Queensland. I must have mis-remembered an article in Tropical Fish Hobbyist.

In any case, I spent a dingo surrounded night camping on the dunes of Fraser Island thinking that I was in the long lost purple gudgeon paradise. Which was beautiful regardless of gudgeon status, and inspired the “scene writing” of this song. Other inspiration comes from the Cream soaked (gross) lyrics and psychadelic lo-fi sounds of the late 60s and the very hip not tacky Chillhop genre.

I recorded the chimes that come in towards the end of the song in Penn State’s arboretum (affectionately, The Arbortorium). Hooray for publicly available instruments!

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I’m The Biggest Thing In The Ocean Liner Notes

I’m The Biggest Thing In The Ocean is a book by Kevin Sherry. We stocked this in the gift shop of the aquarium I worked at in San Francisco. There's a bit of down time at work, so I've read the book while waiting for guests to arrive. It’s a children’s book, but the concept of “the biggest thing in the ocean” is truly terrifying. That's playing on some real Thalassophobia!

So to take the concept to some kind of metal tune was obvious. I had been playing around with the idea of making an acoustic stoner/doom metal album, since you can get some pretty gnarly sounds out of an acoustic if you're playing some chunky rhythm.

The song splits from the book in that there's a little environmental messaging in there, and the end of the book is that (spoilers) the biggest thing in the ocean gets eaten by an even bigger thing. Again, dark turn for a children's book.

Shout out to Zack Maser for the cello playing, the NOAA, and the Sei Whales, Humpback Whales, North Atlantic Right Whales, and Blue Whales for their voices in the song. Human activity destroys their migration patterns, and raises their voices to be able to communicate (www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrpkZkwTvu0)

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Every Twelf Coffee Liner Notes

I had a version of Every Twelf Coffee written and briefly released on my previous album "Once He Did Though" but it was just the acapella part with piano, and not jazzed up enough. After learning a little more music theory and recording techniques I'm happy to release this newer version.

The title is about how it seems like every once in a while you have a coffee that just makes you sleepier, and life is hard, but sometimes all you need is friend to get you by.
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Riff City Liner Notes

Sometimes you gotta have fun. Ties into Every Twelf Coffee.