The Stories Behind the Songs on the New EP
I recorded the songs on the EP between 2009 and 2012. The most recent overdub was my vocal on “Philosophy Machine”, which was recorded in March, 2023. My intention was to make a full album in which I played most of the instruments myself. But a funny thing happened; I stopped working about halfway through. After years of writing those kinds of songs, I suddenly dried up creatively and the process was no longer fulfilling. That’s when I started the Corpus Alienum project, which was created to be a vehicle for my instrumental compositions. In that context, I was creatively fertile and worked with ease. Writing and recording instrumental music is fun compared to songwriting and singing, which is hard work. I needed a break, but enough time has passed and now I’m bringing these songs out.
“Entitled" is a song about how hard it is to make a living with a disability and defying and exceeding people's expectations of what I can do. It's about overcoming a fear of judgement and living your life with no apologies to anyone. As a legally blind person, I've faced discrimination and prejudice. I have been spat upon and assaulted over it. It's about that. John Holt provided the organ throughout and the Mellotron part in the bridge.
"Cambrian Explosion" also features John Holt on organ and his very essential string arrangement. It's about the rush of the creative process where inspiration hits and when ideas come together. It's also about the feeling I get when making music in my studio, thinking up ideas, laying down tracks, editing and mixing. The "Blumlein Pair" (written "pear" in the lyric) and the "Decca Tree" are microphone arrays for recording in stereo. Yes, it does reference the Beach Boys' "Cabinessence". I was doing lots of meditation then, so you get "Pass from the rêve to the real/And when all's said, done and revealed/You can feel you're getting stronger from inside".
I wrote "Philosophy Machine" in 1992 when I was 23 and performed it in the Groupers originally and also with the KKG. The songs on the EP are sort of notes to myself, in this case about isolation and loneliness and my perceived inscrutability to most people I encounter. Thus began my tendency to write mostly upbeat, snappy tunes with more serious lyrics for those who care to look beneath the surface. Mike Schrand provides some lap steel. That's the 53-year-old me singing a song written by the 23-year-old me. As I look back on this tune, I think the younger me showed promise.
"Quality Control" is about...well, I'm not quite sure what it's about, but it certainly sounds like I mean it. I wrote it in 2008, and I vaguely remember reacting to the nastiness and acrimony surrounding the election of 2008 (Banter and blame/And they're chanting your name/In a litany of bad news...sounds like Sarah Palin, and foreshadows Tr*mp). But it's also personal, like when you see someone you know and love make the same mistakes over and over again without learning. It's as if I'm saying,"if you're wondering why your life sucks, you're probably not seeing something about yourself that's rather obvious to everyone else." This can also be applied to myself. Whether personal or political, the themes hold. I played every instrument and sang every vocal part on this one.
And finally, "The Big Whatever" is a sort of agnostic hymn, admitting of unknown forces but unwilling to define those forces in personal terms. I wrote it in 2011 after a very turbulent time in my life and writing songs again was hard. I was doing lots of mediation, probing the inner depths. It's basically a pep talk for myself. This was a fun one to record, especially doing the backup vocals with the Sun Sawed in 1/2's Doug Bobbenhouse in Chicago and recording the Sun's Dave Farver on tenor sax in my tiny little studio. I intentionally tried to write a song that didn't conform to my usual style.
So…will I do a follow-up to the EP in that style? Ask me next year.