EDIT: now on soundcloud!

It's here, it's (mildly) queer, and it didn't manage to kill me - it's that album I've been talking about for many many moons. I did every part of this except violin and female vocals. On the whole, I'm really happy with how it turned out - I may have someone else re-master it for me once I have the money, but I'm pretty fine with the job I did on that for now. I had to change some things last minute to get things to sound nice on Bandcamp, but that's ok.

This has been consuming basically every hour that I haven't been working for the past few weeks/months, and I am so relieved to have it over with. I crunched the numbers, and this took about 500 hours to make, a large amount of which was spent on 4 or 5 songs that are no longer on the album. I'm planning on putting those out on their own EP in a month or so, but right now I just don't want to record a dang ol' thing.

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Let's talk about these songs!

1. The Tempest

This song is 7 years old, written when I was 15. It's a song I like, but it's honestly on this album partly so I can just get a decent recording of it and get it out of my system.

The first part was recorded mostly on my tape deck, and the rest of the album is all digital. I wanted this track to sound kind of like the first 2 EPs I did, and then transition into something much bigger.

2. Found

The first thing I recorded for this album, and the last thing I finished mixing. The nylon guitars on this track are the bane of my existence, and I couldn't re-record them because my nylon guitar is on another coast.

3. Homeward Bound

Another old one. Here's a live video, if anyone wants to see it. One of my favorite songs to play, the fingerpicking is really fun.

4. Life in a Vacuum

A song I wrote for a cute girl.

5. Bind

A song I wrote for a cute boy. This one was actually cut from the album until a week or two ago, and I'm really glad I put it back on.

6. Helen

My absolute favorite song to play. This is actually the second recorded version I have - here's the first. I wanted a sparkly new version now that I'm a bit better at recording, and I really wanted to change up the ending.

7. Kiyoko

Really really happy with the second half of this, production-wise. Based on this person.

8. Isaac

Another do-over, here's the original. I think the ending of this might be the prettiest thing I've ever made.

9. And Became Visible

This song has over 200 tracks on it. That shit is never gonna happen again.

The poem that gives the album/this track their names is "Elegy" by Tomas Transtromer. I was also considering "Scarecrow".

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Takeaways:

No, you can NOT fix it in post.

I spent so much time trying to fix mistakes that I made while tracking, and I wish I had just spent the extra few hours to get better takes/mic placement to start.

There's always the next album.

I had a very hard time not getting discouraged about my mixing ability when I was comparing my tracks to commercially produced albums, but things became a lot better when I just compared things to the last folk EP I put out. I'm not trying to be better than anyone else, just better than the last thing I made.

Finishing something imperfectly is better than never finishing it at all

I've been recording music for almost 4 years now, and the fact that it took me this long to try and make an album is a testament to how much the idea of putting out a substantial project scares me. Glad my inner perfectionist was exhausted enough to finally let go of the small things.

thenewgreen, steve, bfv, ButterflyEffect, elizabeth, kantos, zebra2, lil, @every person who has ever expressed slight interest.

If you like this, you can buy it. If you want a free download, PM me and I'll send you a link.

-Brendan.