3 albums of scatterbrained oddball indie pop. Surreal yet sincere storytelling, turning everyday oddities and unusual requests into memorable, catchy songs. The music feels like it lives in its own little parallel dimension.
The Ear Between Worlds – 2013
The origin of these songs dates back to 2009 when I started taking song requests through an anonymous form on my website. Some of the requests were heartfelt love stories, while others were vivid ramblings, intriguing confessionals, or sci-fi musings. But I committed to writing songs for virtually every submission, no matter how strange.
After a period of years, I collected some of these songs and put them together into three albums of off beat, but catchy tunes.
To get an idea of what the writing process was like. Here are some of the requests that came across my desk, and the way that I responded to them musically.
| What is your song idea? | The last song was great, and I’m going through the same thing as Timmy. I have a friend who I used to talk to a lot and now, she seems to hate me. It’s sad, but I’m an optimist so I’d like it to be a really upbeat and bouncy, happy song. |
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| describe your song in one word | happy |
| What is your song idea? | |
|---|---|
| A mom and pop video store back in the day called “Fast Forward Video” that everyone knew in a small town (Shenandoah, PA) until it closed down due to a bigger franchise video store moving into the town, such as Blockbuster. During this time it was the end to most of all the mom and pop video stores in the country. The store was run by Frank & Gail. Their children, Matt, Kyle, Tim, & Rick used to be down there everyday helping out, sleeping by the kerosene heater or playing Nintendo in the back. The store only closed on Wednesday’s and that’s when people use to get to keep their videos out for an extra day. It always opened at 2p.m. The building has since been turned into a nieghbors garage. | |
| describe your song in one word | Fast-forward |
| What is your song idea? | I need a song that says I’m the kind of person you want to get to know, but doesn’t come off as egotistical. A kind of subtly awesome vibe. I’m confident, artistic, funny in a quirky sort of way, and talented, but I’d never tell you that. It just needs to say, hey take another look over here, I’m pretty cool. |
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| describe your song in one word | chill |
| who is the imagined singer | Jack the Rabbit |
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| who is the intended listener | The Cactus |
| ask three questions | Where did my lady rabbit go? Is there such this as heat lightening? What on earth? |
| describe your song in one word | Grand |
| What is your song idea? | |
|---|---|
| Previous request, Space Whales, was so good that I’m compelled to ask again. My friend is writing a Metroidish 8-bit style videogame with a snail for hero, which has a maze room you have to shoot and break open the path to get to an item, which has no enemies in it. Her bird enemies fly through all objects like Medusa heads in Castlevania, so I joked “that room with the breakable maze to the helix piece, you could have birds fly through there too. since they can already fly through the ground why not brick walls too.” Anyways can you write a song about Birds In The Maze Room. Here’s the cover art: http://i51.tinypic.com/w01hyo.png | |
| describe your song in one word | birdsinthemazeroom |
| What is your song idea? | |
|---|---|
| Beth is a 40 year old housekeeper in the house where I stay in the Philippines. She has a 21 year old daughter Wendy, and they look like sisters. When her friends ask, “Why did you not remarry?” She says, “I don’t know!” Yesterday she had friends over to watch a movie. One of them was a woman who works at the orphanage where I teach, and one was her teenaged daughter who was 9 months pregnant. Beth, Wendy, the teenager and her mother all lounged on a bed giggling at the movie. Later that day the orphanage owner came by and said the teenager had gone to the hospital. He said she felt too young and poor to take care of the baby, so Beth would take care of it at the house while the mom decides whether or not to put it up for adoption. I asked Beth about it and she said “if the mother decides to put the baby up for adoption… I will adopt the baby.” I asked if she was friends with the teenager or something, and she said no, but she had more money and time for the baby, and the teenager was very talented so she could go back to school and do well. The decision was just practical. She made it just that morning when they were all together watching a movie. That night I listened to Paul Simon’s later album “You’re the One.” The song “Hurricane Eye” says something like “if you want to be a missionary let a stranger change your life.” The song and the album as a whole is refreshingly self-aware with practical stories told with sensitivity and a sense of humor. The tone reminded me of Beth, smiling, saying “I will adopt.” Any day now there will be a baby in this house where I stay. I walk down the warm, slanted, colorful streets and think how strange it is that I’d feel so at home living with strangers and writing stories about their lives. | |
| describe your song in one word | home |
| What is your song idea? | “Most of you may not understand what I sing because I’m singing in Japanese. But I believe music is heart and music is soul. I’m very happy if you feel my heart and soul.” ~Higuchi Makiko. |
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| describe your song in one word | No-Borders |
Shadows Of Avalon – 2015
By 2015 I’d accumulated more off-kilter, but somehow catchy tunes about unexpected topics: super massive stars, sleeve tattoos, limbless amphibians, monsters, toy pianos. Many of these were suggestions from friends. By this time people would just reach out to me to suggest a song anytime they encountered something odd, but somehow song-worthy. I gathered ten of my favorites for the album Shadows Of Avalon.
The Phantom Spaceship – 2016
In 2016 I released one more album of strange pop tunes to complete the trilogy. Together these three albums form a sort of “cabinet of curiosities” of off beat pop tunes.