I suppose I’ll tell you a little bit about the history of this album.  It goes way back to my NYC days when I was putting on my musical, Fun Wearing Underwear.  My roommate, Rose, was dating this guy Shayne who lived in C-Squat and used to play in the punk band Choking Victim.  Rose was in my musical along with a ton of other friends from Purchase College and brought Shayne out to a show. He loved it and started coming regularly to the shows which were happening every weekend at Surf Reality, a truly unique and amazingly free theater where really anything was possible.  After becoming closer with Shayne and meeting his friend Josh, I decided to accept his offer to move into C-Squat (aka See Skwat) and live the squatter lifestyle.  It was great and horrible.  I wouldn’t trade the experience away, but I’ve moved from that lifestyle for my mental and physical health.  The squat has since become a co-op and some of my old friends still live there, but it is definitely changing.

Anyway, I met Josh Gura in those years and was always fascinated by how weird and wonderful his mind and his art were.  I’m still amazed and awe inspired by his work.  I wish I was in a position to make him famous because I really think he’s got incredible skills and an ingenious mind.

After my daughter was born in 2007, I moved up to Rochester from Ithaca and became less present in the NYC scene.  Josh reached out to me not too long after and said he wanted to collaborate on an album together.  He only had a short time to work with me, but he brought his studio up to my apartment in Rochester and we worked day and night producing these tracks.  I was insistent that I not play to a click track, so we did painstaking beat-mapping, which is a difficult process involving looking at wave forms to place where each beat hits.  Not easy.  This is why you’ll hear the rhythm of this album waver and move, slower and faster at points.  I hope you’ll enjoy this new production of this old song and take the time to listen to the full album, maybe even download it from bandcamp! The full album can be found HERE.

Certain People lyrics:

Certain people have certain smiles
some are awkwardly like a frown
with creases in cracks go on for miles
carry the water all further down

sometimes people show love strangely
like when we own each other
holding love inside of a cage deranged
withers and weathers a nursing mother

leafs are pages
the pages are leaving
a sage is receiving a leaflet
with pictures and captions
muses are destined
to humbly stumble
tumbling dumbly
fall into the lap of the all mind

d’al bange has taken your hand
d’al bange is stroking your head

everywhere in every town
people are dressing in what they’ve made
with their own hands
others they gather
tar and feather the naked clowns
get their reward
retire and fade away
on their own land

sometimes equal doesn’t explain things
innocent mother
held inside the cage of a rage deranged man
withers and weathers a nursing daughter

leafs are pages
the pages are leaving
a sage is receiving a leaflet
with pictures and captions
muses are destined
to humbly stumble
tumbling dumbly
fall into the lap of the all mind

d’al bange has taken your hand
d’al bange is stroking your head

put it down in a safe place
out of sight out of mind
weary head, enter the safe place
out of sight out of mind