The Other Side of Deux
Deux: French for “of them” or “about them.” Also, the number 2, the natural number following 1 and preceding 3…
Work on our second album began while we were hip deep into finishing Loverture. The events of 2020 - political strife, social strife, wildfire strife, pandemic strife…all of which hit too close to… home - crystalized into ‘The Line’, the first new song I had written in many years (Kevin of course had a backlog of “ditties” to pick through, as we’ll get to in a minute). As 2020 turned into 2021 and then 2022 we found we had a nice growing list of things to choose from for our next project. With a little more confidence, a little more experience, and more than a little more gear we found ourselves eager to make a more collaborative and, in all respects, better recording.
We returned to the Vault of The Past to retrieve ‘World Around Me’ and ‘Paddle the Boat’, both written circa 1990, both recorded at Portland Community College’s 8-track studio (sadly, both the recordings and the studio itself are now long gone). ‘Someday I’ll Remember’, ‘Who We Are’, and ‘The Other Side of You’ all came relatively quickly, the latter springing forth while I tried to re-discover another long lost song called “MJ Junior.” I didn’t find that one, but I ended the afternoon with something much better. Featuring Aaron Williamson on piano and Angela Pope on vocals, it’s one of many songs featuring guest stars this time around.
A trip Daryl and I took to Kevin’s house in the summer of 2021 was extremely profitable - in addition to playing us his nifty instrumental ‘Crystal Masonite’, he had three amazing songs in various states of completion. Getting chord progressions from Kevin is like being handed a big bowl of ice cream with all the toppings laying around and then offered the chance to “go finish the sundae.” Over the next few days I ended up writing lyrics and melodies to what became ‘Longing’, ‘Waiting to Breathe’, and ‘A Chance to Be True,’ the former featuring my old Floydwheels bandmate Ben Blechman on violin and our good friend Steve Cohen (the jazz cat!) on bass, and the latter delightfully decorated by Jennifer Liu, also on violin.
Other songs had more…interesting beginnings. ‘Day’s Blues’ came in a dream while on vacation, and I remember tiptoeing off to the bathroom in the middle of the night, trying not to step on sleeping dogs, to record the melody on my phone so it would not beforgotten. ‘Moag Ya!’ started life as an audio glitch that happened during a zoom call - I grabbed my iPhone and recorded a snippet of the loop, thinking for some reason ‘this would be cool to use in a song.’ We had a lot of fun putting that song together, literally mapping out the sections on a whiteboard that filled up way too fast. The spoken middle bit was a strange radio broadcast that came through my bass amp one afternoon while Daryl and I were workshopping parts. We had no idea what language it was or what was being said, but we recorded it, thinking we could use it somewhere. Moag, being our ‘kitchen sink’ song, seemed an appropriate home.
On the engineering side, I took some inspiration from Daryl’s home practice studio, the Beat Locker™, and with Diane’s blessing (or shall we say, quiet resignation) constructed a home studio downstairs that would give us a calm and more sonically pleasing room to write, record, and mix within. After a frantic burst of construction to get ready for recording, Le(no) Studio 2.0 went into operation in the spring of 2022, and our fun work began soon after. Sessions continued throughout 2022 and 2023 when we could find the time… finding the desire was never the problem.
It was immediately apparent that everyone’s playing had elevated since our last recording sessions, and our collaboration proved invaluable when it came time to discuss arrangements, dynamics, and how our songs should feel. As our Quality Control engineer, Daryl’s ears were invaluable, especially when reigning in two guitarists who always wanted to pile on more and more stuff (“just one more track, I’ve got an idea!”). Kevin, as always, was a fount of incredible textures, tones, and guitar parts, and we were very happy he had the chance to jump on lap steel, mandolin, and piano this time around. As always, both of them elevated the songs far beyond what they were initially.
Our goal for this album was to create a collection of songs as varied in style as possible, honoring our multiple influences while trying to expand and extend ‘our sound.’ We’re very proud of the work we all did, and even happier at how much fun we had while doing it. We hope you enjoy it.
- JL
December, 2023