Hey all,
It’s been a long time since I’ve done one of these journal-esque posts. I thought it’d be fun to write about a few things that have been going on in my musical world lately, from a few different angles.
The first is that we plan to release new music in the very near future. We’re putting the finishing touches on things. But as long as all goes to plan, we’ll be looking at releasing a new single in the next few weeks. Everything has been packaged up and submitted. We’re just waiting for the notification that everything’s a-ok and on schedule. Excited to share more on that once we get the green light.
In the meantime, there has suddenly been a ton of Alice in Chains in my life lately. It started because my cousin got me a copy of This Angry Pen of Mine, which is a book featuring a collection of things like handwritten copies of lyrics and poetry by Layne Staley. Also lots of his artwork and excerpts/memories from family members, friends and fellow musicians. It was especially cool to see early, handwritten versions of the lyrics to a lot of his songs, and to see how different drafts evolved over time. Another thing that stuck with me was how almost every single person who talked about Layne in this book mentioned how funny and quick-witted and kind-hearted he was. Very neat to read a little about his offstage personality from those that were closest to him.
After reading that, I went into a deep-dive of Dirt. Over the course of a few weeks, I’d go out to the garage, put that album on and play along on bass. I’ve had that album for as long as I can remember, but hadn’t really put the time in to learn most of it on bass before. I’d of course learned Would? long ago, with that iconic bass line. At one point, I had learned Them Bones because a few of us played it at a party once. But the rest I learned during this month-long binge. And spending that much time with the album, and focusing on learning all the intricacies, only gave me a deeper appreciation for this classic.
I also recently started watching music videos on TV a bunch. I wanted to put a little music on in the background in the living room. I pulled up the XITE Rock x Metal channel, and I was instantly transported back to 9 years old, when I was watching MTV round the clock and seeing videos from Stone Temple Pilots, The Cranberries, Nirvana, Weezer. Heard/saw some more Alice in Chains. I’d actually never seen the video for Down in a Hole until seeing it on this channel the other night. But otherwise it’s been a lot of fun and nostalgic to see some of these videos again for the first time in a long, long time.
That’s all for now. More updates on new music to come shortly!
-Phil
