sloum


music : distance


Distance front cover art Distance inside cover art Distance tray card art Distance disc face art

Metadata

Track Listing

# Title Time
1 Bird Masks 03:27
2 Distance 03:21
3 Everything Is About to Get Better 03:53
4 Hands, Entwining In Hope 02:42
5 Sage Canyon 04:14
6 Sterna 04:44
7 The Dim Light of Distant Stars 02:37
8 The Grand Adventures of Mr. Pumblechooks 01:47
9 Wolves (Alternate Version) 02:47

Personnel

Notes & Thoughts

While released in 2024, all of these songs were recorded at least 10 years prior. I kept waiting for the right time or the right label or... something. In the end, I just waited and waited and listened to the tracks on my own. My friend Nate had planned to put the songs out on his label, PixieFont Records. I think we just wanted different things from it, and it never really materialized. So, I decided to print up a few CDs for myself. I like hard copy. It lasts in a different way than digital.

All of these were recorded in a studio apartment in Santa Ana, California. It had thin walls. My neighbors were nice people and never complained about the noise. A few of these, in particular Distance, Everything Is About to Get Better and Hands, Entwining In Hope, were written for or about the woman who I would eventually marry. She was living in New York at the time, but having a rough go of it at tha particular moment in time. One of the songs, The Grand Adventures of Mr. Pumblechooks was written after she moved in with me in California. Her cat moved with her, but he was old and unwell. I wrote the song to commemorate him a little bit (the title is a reference to a nickname she had for him).

Most of the tracks are how I want them to sound, more or less. A few are unfinished. Too much time and too many computers had passed and I just wasn't going to rework them. Sterna, for example, is missing good bass and a better mix. I still like all of the songs, but regret never getting them fully dialed in.

The tracks were recorded into a PreSonus Scarlet 2i2o interface using PreSonus's Studio One software for recording. I played my usual array of guitars with effects pedals, with a larger emphasis on processed acoustic guitar. The drums were all programmed, except for some hand percussion on Sage Canyon and the drums on Mr. Pumblechooks, which were done using a Korg Volca Sample. I also used a Volca analog synth on Bird Masks and a few other tracks.