SPIDERMAN OF THE RINGS:
In 2007 I had no ID, no cell phone, no bank account, no computer, no credit card, no money, and thought there was no actual future. But I had friends. Those friends helped me through a time in my life that could have gone in several awful directions, but with them, I went down a very strange, beautiful and colorful journey that, in many ways, solidified 10 years ago with the release of 'Spiderman of The Rings.'
SMOTR was written mostly on a roommates desktop computer while he was at work. The album was recorded on a borrowed laptop and with a borrowed microphone in my bedroom within a warehouse when the person on the other side of the wall wasn't playing the drums (which was insanely often). Beyond those huge tangible favors, what the community of friends I had and new people I was meeting in Baltimore gave to me was a massive inspiration and encouragement that seemed unique to this place and that time.
When I first started making computer music, I was making it for myself to pass the time, more like a video game than a studio practice. The idea of other people listening to it seemed like a fantasy and I thought there was no way to perform it. That slowly changed in college at Purchase, being around so many artists and different people constantly working, seeing so much work always on display. It inspired me to want to share my work and to make it of a quality worth sharing. Upon moving to Baltimore in 2004, the energy from college was concentrated in the small group of friends I moved here with and amplified by the energy and creative fervor felt throughout Baltimore. My first few years in Baltimore shaped the musician I was to become in ways I could not have foreseen.
I fell in love with the American DIY and the absurd optimist nihilism I felt in it. The world was going to end in 2012 so we might as well party our way into the apocalypse. Every second was lived in the moment and the entire world was summed up in a tiny warehouse or basement of whatever city I was in that night. I was a fool. An ignorant, ecstatic fool.
The first indication that SMOTR was going to be a turning point for me as a musician was when the album "leaked" a few months prior to its released. This was hilarious to me. Before this, I could barely give my music away for free and now people were "stealing" it. It made me so happy. The leak found its way to a Radiohead message board that started having the first real conversations about the album. Prior to this, I had never really encountered anyone hearing my music without seeing me perform. From that leaked and the work that Carpark was doing, my music reached more people than I could ever have dreamed of. It completely changed my life in every possible way.
ULTIMATE REALITY:
There is no one else in my life that I have collaborated more frequently with than Jimmy Joe Roche. We met in college, became fast friends and have lived like arcane idiots ever since. His psychedelic images have always inspired me. In our college dorm room, our computers would be setup side by side. It was almost a competition to see who could work the most on them. His work ethic and push for originality were major inspirations and source of drive in me.
When Jimmy moved in with me in Baltimore in 2006 I had just begun working on some new music for a project with two of my favorite humans and drummers, Jeremy Hymen and Kevin O'Meara. They were my two favorite musicians in Baltimore, amazingly creative drummers who put their all into their playing and displayed it both in the sounds and with physicality of their movements. They both looked like they were exploding and contracting back infinitely as speeds that baffled me. I very much wanted to write a piece of music for the two of them to perform together. This started with 'Ultimate Reality (movement 3).'
Jimmy came home when we were rehearsing in the living room and immediately asked what we’re doing and if he could collaborate with us visually on the project. His involvement brought the project into a context that allowed it to be real. Before this, I had no idea how this piece of music would exist, now suddenly, it was real.
This collaboration awoke in me my desire to write music for other other musicians. Musicians of amazing skill and ability. This project was steer my music in a totally new direction. Ultimate Reality was what helped steer me towards Bromst, America and was the seed that brought about collaborations with Sō Percussion and the Kronos Quartet.
Ultimate Reality came out in late 2007, a few months after Spiderman of the Rings. The score of Ultimate Reality was always linked to the live performance or with the visuals on DVD. It was never released as a standalone score until this release. It makes me really happy to have SMOTR and Ultimate Reality paired together for the release. Both those projects marked major turning points in my life as a musician. Looking back SMOTR and Ultimate Reality were opposite side of the same door that I was passing through. There could not have been one without the other.
IN CLOSING:
All the original files and session for SMOTR and Ultimate Reality have been lost time to time. There will never be a re-master or re-mixing of the album or the score. At first, this really bummed me out. But slowly it not only started to make sense but make me happy. It reminded me of how I lived and who I was 10+ years ago when I was making the album. I never thought there would be a reason to archive those files, to keep track of old computers or hard drives. Plus even if I had, I wouldn't have had a means of doing so. It feels appropriate that they are frozen in time, mixed in the red, maxed out at all levels at all times for all time. I recorded them in the same way a photograph is taken, to document a moment in time. I didn't plan on losing the ability to remaster or remix the Spiderman of the Rings, but I also didn't plan on anything else associated with it or my career to happen to it seems perfect and poetic that it's impossible.
I'd like to deeply thank anyone and everyone that's ever taken the time to listen to any of music. It still blows me away to know that with such a massive wealth of music we live with some people choose the time to spend their time listening to mine. I can't thank you enough for that. Thank you to my friends and family that have kept me alive and going and continue to inspire me and push me. I'd like to thank two specific individuals. Todd at Carpark for, despite knowing I was completely insane, believing in my music and giving me a chance to share it with the world. And thank you to Sam Hunt who thankfully didn't know I was completely insane but, upon learning so, continued to help me deeply explore my love of performing and touring through a deep collaboration on whatever logically and logistically impractical concept I approach him with.
OK, sorry for this long winded sentimental nonsense. This music means a lot to me and it means everything that it means anything to you. Thank you again so infinitely much. I'll keep making my weird music as long as I'm able with hopes that it'll reach anyone and make them smile, inspired or want to have a party.
'Spiderman Of the Rings' (Deluxe 10th Anniversary Edition Including Ultimate Reality) is out now!
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Stream/DL: smarturl.it/smotr10_dsps
Limited vinyl: smarturl.it/smotr10_vmp
Limited cassettes: smarturl.it/smotr10_carpark
Limited merch: bit.ly/smotr10_merch
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