A new collection of ephemera from the most recent era of this project... there's a little bit of everything on here. I'll be the first to admit, I have given this band a bit of a break in my mind. Putting the finishing touches on this collection put me in a pretty nostalgic mindset, it's hard not to when you're sifting through nine years of sessions. The material here existed in tandem to a lot of album work, but most of it was approached with a completely different mindset.
Especially, the Inland Empires Disregard the Sea promotional edits took a long time. Surviving the Buried Earth somehow survived several uninspired attempts! I never wanted to cut it down. The backwards-syncopated outro of Lumen Tracker is also one of my personal favorite post-production elements I've added into any track. And the new mix on "The Company Men" had me twiddling knobs for hours trying to get it right. Inland Empires is one of my favorite records I've ever worked on, I challenged myself
There are a couple of stand alone cuts of soundtrack work I did for Silent Frame productions in the collection as well. Soundtrack material is always so different than album music, I always look at it from an angle of "what is going to serve the film here?" It takes you outside yourself and your own taste as an artist, in that sense it's probably beyond healthy as artistic exercise.
Shaking Through a Hillside Blue is a scrapbook, a slideshow, a mural of different moments. I'm glad it's complete and out there for all to hear.
