About a year ago I was driving around the desert bouncing between southern Arizona, Joshua tree, slab city and Sedona visiting friends and exploring some far out areas I had never been. while I was out west I began receiving the first mixes of “Transmigration Blues” and started selecting which songs the album would consist of from the material that had been recorded a few months prior. It was a beautiful way to bring the songs back into my life. I was in motion and activated, I was in a place where I could experience the songs coalesce with the environment and moments in a non-centered way. Which is some attempt to try and say I was able to allow myself to hear them as apart of what was happening rather than as the only thing that was happening. Metaphorically speaking i suppose if one can’t see the forest through the trees then maybe go to the desert. anyways….eventually I was left with a handful of songs that weren’t included on the album, some were used as singles and some haven’t been released until today. I’m very pleased to see all these songs now under the same roof in this new deluxe version of “transmigration blues.” it feels like, in some small way, a home coming of sorts.
When I started The Dead Tongues I was just beginning to turn my focus toward acoustic instruments after many years of playing through big amps and lots of effects pedals. I felt excited in the absence of electricity and drawn to the minimalism that was required, and honestly I still am. Yet I find myself spending more and more time once again with the electric guitar, which feels equally familiar as it does foreign at times. In the recording of “Pawnshop Dollar Bills” it’s all there, rediscovery and unknown territory, just an energetic push toward something that feels alive.
“Pawnshop Dollar Bills” the newest single from The Dead Tongues, out now on Psychic Hotline.
Déjá Vu (Radio Edit) · The Dead Tongues, released through Psychic Hotline
