our new record,
plan for the way out, is out today. it's been over two full
years since this project officially began (i recorded the first, horrifyingly
despondant sounding demo of paper moons in june 2023), and it has changed so, so
much since then. it's hard to put into words the herculean amount of effort we
put into this. part of me wants to keep this post short, the part of me that always
falters just before the finish line (should i just delete this album and live in
a hole underground? sources say yes), but i feel like it would be an injustice
to everyone who's pushed this thing even an inch closer to the top of the
mountain. so long, it is!
first and foremost,
desi lilly saved this album. i wrote all these little songs
with no drummer in mind besides me finger drumming in garageband on my phone.
but as we started playing them together, they morphed into something so much bigger. i
can't overstate the incredible improvement between whatever dinky stuff i was
doing and where it ended up once she got on board. there's a lot of moments on
this album where it sounds like the drums and the guitars do a flip- seriously,
listen for it. thanks for being the bestest drummer in the world and an even
bestest-er friend.
the basslines on this album were intensely flavored by the genius of
nathan
mcmurray,
dylan clancy, and
gabe coughlin. anywhere you hear the low end do
something mindblowing, just remember it's all their fault. our
boys/heroes/musical geniuses from
prospective best band of all time,
mail.,
brought us with them to milwaukee (shoutout
the entire city of milwaukee) for
our first show ever and continue to inspire us every day.
charlie johnston
graciously listened to these demos from day one, and also made 2 of them sound like her
much cooler band with
piano and violin. likewise,
will huffman told me to scream more often, a piece
of advice i've taken to heart.
teagan brey laid down an incredible solo to close
out the record, and has been a great collaborator throughout the existence of
this band (one day we'll make the beach jam album, i swear).
chris medina made
all of the beautiful origami on the album and single covers at incredible
speeds.
braeden long took real professional photos of us for this album cycle and printed our shirts, and should be given a sponsorship from fender.
kai slater let us use his practice space in the dead of night and has
been so generous and lovely throughout all iterations of this band.
isaac lowenstein was the very first person to play drums on these songs, and even though it was only for a day, his prescence is still felt in the paper moons intro fill.
will
killingsworth at dead air made it sound good (you should pay him money to do the
same to your music).
henry tartt held us down during hellish bouts of mixing and
sweeped frequencies in the graphical EQ plugin upon his incredible hi-fi quad
speaker setup, and did some beach boys-style clapping (
did the beach boys clap
often?) on "in search of transit".
matthew fox almost did some immense banjo
shredding on "here from the ledge", and you should be grateful you were spared
the head explosion.
my parents accidentally named a cat after us. and of course,
i thank my best friend forever,
riot.
as i listen to it right now for probably the last time for many many months, all
i can hear (or choose to hear perhaps) is an intense ambition. these recordings exist despite a comical amount
of setbacks, false starts, equipment frying, moves, cuts, bruises and
hearing loss. and i can't tell if we hit the mark that these songs demanded when
they clawed their way out of my head so long ago, but i do know this: we made it
happen. so in turn, i also know that if we did it once, we can do it again. and
if i know that, then you should know this: we're comin' for ya!
thank you
milo
