All I can do is write. This shit just comes pouring out of me.

It’s odd, really. And I can’t explain it.

So I’m only saying this because I decided to take a look back at my year of absurd productivity; a year where I released five LPs and four EPs along with a couple singles and b-sides…It’s maddening, to be certain. But I feel at the height of my abilities. And so, I’m going to take a moment of self-congratulation before I pour into the ins and outs of
My Year in Music: 2015

March 24

Simplifiers or, A Pair Of Honest Men

https://thesupposedso.bandcamp.com/album/simplifiers-or-a-pair-of-honest-men

My most ambitious anything ever:
a three part novel, culminating in a plot involving the writing and recording of a record.
the accompanying album made by the characters in the story

I don’t know what to say about this project, other than I thought I was going to spend most of the year selling it – which I did to an extent – and ended up becoming more engrossed in the new things I was coming up with.

April 30

War and Fashion

https://thesupposedso.bandcamp.com/album/war-and-fashion

I love this little five song EP.

“Fashion Seekers” is the catchiest and snarliest thing I’ve ever done.

“At The End Of The Day” is probably the best song I’ve ever written and it is here on this album in its first incarnation.

May 12

Revival In E Major

https://thesupposedso.bandcamp.com/album/revival-in-e-major

A 100% tossed off, GreenDayInspired, pseudo power-pop album with just an acoustic guitar for instrumentation. Written and recorded in under a week. The final track, “Left-Handed”, is, in an odd sort of way, a love letter to Rock and Roll, with that love having been revamped by the first listens of Courtney Barnett, when she was on Tiny Desk singing “Avant Gardener” and being left-handed.

These are good songs to play live because they’re quick and hooky, so I do that.

May 24

Kilter

https://thesupposedso.bandcamp.com/album/kilter

Written in the wake of a Nirvana fixation; after I saw Montage Of Heck and revisited their albums – other than Unplugged which has been a constant in my life since I first heard it 11 years ago – and became transfixed for a very brief period of time.

“No Matter” is the simplest song ever and I love it, with the entire song written around the words “everything I do is wrong, and I don’t care”.

I wrote the guitar riff for “Religiously” years and years ago.

Same goes for “The Lucky One”.

June 17

Rocka Bye Babies II

Sequel to Rocka Bye Babies, obviously, but not as good, except for the first song on the album where I’ve written a song around the tune of an old ferris wheel music box my friend Katie Hertzel gave to me. There are moments I hold dear throughout the record but in a vastly different way than most of what I do…

I can play none of these songs.

July 21

Escalator

My first of two releases of re-produced songs from my back catalog. Four songs built upon my discovery of a song – “Tricks Of The Mind” – I wrote while living in Portland, OR and recorded poorly in a poor state of mind. It’s a grandious song written from the point of view of a Father who has died, speaking backward through dimension to his son, trying to guide him.

The rest of the disc is made up of other songs off that record (Steps: https://thesupposedso.bandcamp.com/album/steps)

August 23

Mid-Coast

A two song single, “A Song For a Girl and Her Tiny Island” – written off the top of my head on an ipad in a stairwell on an island off the coast of Maine, where I was for Colleen and Ben’s wedding – paired with an acoustic rendition of “We Fly Out Of Line” which comes off my first record, back when it was me and Kevin Clark and The Supposed So was plural. This song was written by the two of us.

September 4

At The End Of The Day

https://thesupposedso.bandcamp.com/album/at-the-end-of-the-day

Just a single of the aforementioned best-song-I’ve-ever-written. Two versions: guitar/harmonica and piano respectively, the piano version being the best version I have recorded.

The b-side splits the two versions, and to be honest I haven’t listened to it since I recorded it, though I’m sure it’s a love song masquerading as something else.

September 11

Dad’s Typewriter

https://thesupposedso.bandcamp.com/album/dads-typewriter

Probably the best album I’ve ever made. You should listen to this one first.

September 22

In The Shadow Of The Haunted Oak

Five absolutely stunning songs I really should learn. “And I’m No Boat” is Allie’s song.

October 21

Nostalgia: A Brief Retrospective

https://thesupposedso.bandcamp.com/album/nostalgia-a-brief-retrospective

11 songs pulled from my first few records, namely Blame It On The Trees, Such a Sinister Sort Of Sweetness, and Rocka Bye Babies

The best sounding album I’ve ever made filled with all my best songs from back in the day, included “Untitled”, the original album version of which doesn’t exist in full, so far as I know

…

So there you have it. I’m putting my next album out tomorrow, January 5. It’s called When a Dream. It’s just guitar and voice. I’m going to take the first track, make a full band version of it, and release it as my next single.

sigh.