dead set
Often, people make great albums that sound absolutely nothing like how they sound live. That’s completely fine. I’m going to do that soon, in fact, with a big ol’ album full of drum machines, guest musicians, and so on.
But it can be off-putting if you purchase someone’s record, only to find out that it’s not what you wanted.
This is how I developed the idea of Dead Set, which I’ve been describing as a “not-quite-live album.” Get it? Dead? Not quite live?
I recorded this in one take. If I made mistakes, I didn’t fix them. I talk about each of the songs before I play it, and then I play it. Simple and straightforward.
If you see me live, it will sound a lot like this. Please support it by buying it (that’s the only way to get the full version — the versions on streaming services are slightly amended in ways that are too silly to discuss right now, but you can click around on Bandcamp and figure it out).
Click the image below to go straight to Bandcamp, or stream with the controls just under the image.
otherfather – maybe tomorrow
My band, otherfather, wrote a big record about grief and anxiety. I discuss depression and art in this article, which is aptly named Art and Depression.
We took about six years to write this album. It’s primarily inspired by the death of our friend Nathan Jatcko. Nathan was the greatest keyboard player I have ever heard. He grew up a few blocks from me and helped me get into music, and I’m forever thankful to him.
We traded tracks back and forth for this record, adding parts until we had something that resembled a song. As a result of the process, it’s very kaleidoscopic, which I think plays well with the themes. Anyway, it’s on Bandcamp.
We also have a pretty dope lyric video for the third single, “some wes anderson bullshit (swab).” If you like to see words moving in front of you while music plays, this is neat.
Singles
This is an old song called “Landslide” that I wrote when I was 16. The lyrics aren’t anything special, and it shares a name with a better song — but I still enjoy it quite a bit, particularly with Troy Brenningmeyer’s arrangement here.
This is a tune called “Sunsets on Mars” that I co-wrote with Troy. It’s about billionaires going to space, and how we don’t get to join them unless we write a song like “Firework.”
This is just a silly talking blues about burning down Applebees.