Seventh birthday (of sorts)
posted on 01 Nov 2005 under category History
In between eating candy, cutting pumpkins, and taking the boy out trick-or-treating, I remembered that October 31 marked another milestone in my recording history - today is the seventh birthday of This End Up. Yep, seven years ago I’d just brought a PC back from the dead and realized I was in luck, that the power drive dying didn’t axe my hard drive. Seven years ago I was running from room to room to unpause the stereo tape deck and start playback on the PC since I had to mix down to cassette. Seven years ago I was practicing my vocals driving to and from work in the car. Writing lyrics during work meetings, programming drums during lunch…
The main thing was that, even more than the previous EP, it really showed me that I could create something that was a full-length album but still with a focus, not just a mishmash of songs. It was a very inspiring time, that I must recall at length one day…
_Looking at my solo era, it was always towards the end of the year that I finished things - This End Up came out in October, on Halloween. Monolith came out in November, if I remember correctly. Bellum came out at the tail end of December. The Festering Sore album came out in August, which may kinda make the cut depending on how you define things
What strikes me about the memories I have of writing these songs for these albums was that it was always spring and summer - there’s something in the change of seasons, combined with that radical shift in daylight patterns when DST hits, that just triggers in me the urge to create something - and over the past few years I’ve felt actual discomfort when I noticed the light change and don’t have any work to do, musically.
It’s got me thinking more about time and place and how the two connect to my most creative period. Somehow I’m always thinking of the past.)