BALLADS FOR GLASS CHILDREN
released AUGUST 13, 2017
ALBUM 8, RELEASE 20
My last album before college! The electronic drum kit I'd been using didn't have a working hi-hat at this time. It's the last time the kit would feature prominently on a HW release. I wrote "13 Days" 13 days before I moved to TCNJ. The riff may have also been in 13/4 or /8 or something. I don't feel like counting it, but I know the foundation of the song wasn't a strict 4/4. I like the song well enough anyway. All of my albums had a song like "Pretend You're Here" during this time. I thought it was great at the time. These days I'm a little bored by it. It's not horrible, but when I think about the songs I actually like from this old album, I don't think about that one. I think of stuff like "Purity", built around a loop of some noise from my vinyl rip of the first Cash Rivers 7", She Laughed I Left. "Married In Mourning" is a nearly identical re-recording of a pre-HW song. The first version was recorded on 4-track, so this version is certainly more expansive, but I'm glad I didn't mess with it too much because I still really like it. I think I botched the second chorus of "#6" but maybe not. That's another one on here I still like. I can't otherwise think of any way this could be improved. It's nice to hear a song almost a decade old and think "actually I got that one right". "Spin The Moon" would be a classic if I'd actually written a second verse. It's really so close. Nat Peterson is one of those fish guys from Spongebob. If you look up the name you'll go "oh, that one". "Song For Nat Peterson" is effectively about learning the background characters in Spongebob had actual names. The "my leg" guy has a name. I don't remember what it is. I wanted the drum machine to be in stereo (FunkBox for iOS, for the record) but my recorder (Tascam DP008ex, for the record) only had 2 inputs, so I recorded the drum machine before everything else. The song wasn't fully fleshed out, which is why the drums sorta fly off the rails in the instrumental second half.