Thursday Nights on Campus Update: The Attic Sessions EP

Hey friends!

Since I have decided to make real progress on my music project, I think the best way to keep at it is to let you know how I'm doing so far. Doesn't that sound fun?


(I'll take your silence as a yes.)

I have the album about 95% written as of right now. The main reason it has taken almost a decade to get this finished is my indecision. I have a clear plan, but new/probably better ideas keep popping up and that just takes more time. Also it is really difficult to schedule practice/recording time when all of the band members have full-time jobs and lives.

That is why I made the choice to release a "solo" EP this fall. This will, I hope, inspire me to write/record the rest of the album. If I can at least finish something musically, it may push me to tackle the big project. Fingers crossed!

The basic premise was lifted from my good friend, John Dickson's, album (Later on Down the Line We Will All be Able to Fly). Which, in turn, is a take on a book called On Death and Dying by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross. So you could say this is a cover of a cover, in a manner of speaking. I, being 19 at the time, decided to take this idea and apply it to relationships - romantic or otherwise. It is broken into sections and, despite what I thought at the time, is way more difficult to write when the material is so specific.

Essentially it is a ride from infatuation through happiness, a trudge through heartbreak, and a final stop in nirvana. Yeah, that seems like a good word to use. Now if only I could write like Kurt...

Anyway, even though most of these songs were written in my teens, I still think they can be applied in many "adult" situations. At least I hope they can be. I tried to write in a way that wouldn't pigeonhole any of them, but maybe I'm not as creative or intelligent as I thought (especially at the time). But I did have help from a pair a wonderful chaps: Pat Fusco and Mark Bartuska.

Even if I wrote all of the lyrics to a song, I would always bring it to both of them for feedback. I cannot stress enough how helpful they were/are in this process. That's why they will always get writing credits on everything, because their advice has been incredible and without them there would be three full songs (maybe).

On the EP there are five songs for your listening pleasure, including a "remix" of sorts and one I just wrote this year (in only two days!). The others were written near the beginning of the band and are what I would call our staples, if we've earned the right to have those. Either way, I am very excited to share legit versions of these songs rather than demos recorded on my phone or an Xbox 360 mic.

I haven't decided if I'm going to dedicate time on my podcast to the release or if I'm going to ramble about them on here, and I probably won't know until that day. I do know, however, that it will be free to download (or on CD by request). But that's down the road, and we have a lot of work to do before we get there.  So I'll stop going on now and get back to work! Gonna be great! Woooo!

Until next time, friends, keep having fun!

Crap open a cold one!