A New Track With Northwest Stories
Plus, a surprise Christmas haunting
Earlier this year, when I released the EP I recorded while on a transatlantic cruise, I immediately received a message from Adam of the folk duo Northwest Stories. He told me he had an idea for adding vocals to my track Stateroom with a View and wanted to know if I’d be into the idea. I was enthusiastic but also skeptical. I didn’t necessarily hear space for vocals with the track as is, but I guess that’s why Northwest Stories consistently crafts quality pop folk bangers and I don’t. So, I wisely assumed Adam knew what he was doing.
Very quickly, he sent me a voice memo of his idea, and it was already essentially perfect and complete sounding. I was blown away. So many times, posting music (or pursuing any creative endeavor) on the internet feels like shouting into the void. You put all of this thought into something and then most of the time, no one even sees or hears it. And you wonder why you spent all that time trying to communicate intricate details when it’s difficult enough to get ears and eyes pointed at the broadest general idea of what you’ve made. I think this is especially true for something like instrumental music where most of what you’re trying to communicate is implicit instead of explicitly spelled out with lyrics.
It was affirming to hear all that Adam picked up from the original track. He seemed to understand everything I was trying to say with the instrumental.
It’s easy to focus on the bad part of the internet, but it’s really important to remember that sometimes, you record music with you cellphone on a cruise ship and a band you’ve never met in person and only know via Instagram connects with that music and takes it, elevates it, turns into something that you could never have made in a million years. I think it’s swell.
Also, I just released two Christmas tracks, unannounced
These two tracks (two versions of the same song) were originally posted exclusively here on Substack two years ago. I typically don’t release music where I’m singing because I’m not a singer, and some of the more painful musical experiences of my life have involved people letting me know I’m not a singer. But I like these songs and I’m addicted to exploring the pain and magic and loss and beauty and melancholy and euphoria that all exist in equal parts for me during the holiday season. So, stream them if you’d like to interrogate your own Christmas ghosts with existential questions.