///02 Freelance (2019-2021)

The first thing I need to address here is the vocals. Yeah, the original version of Cheap Booze had my voice on it. Technically, so does this version, along with that of my bandmate Christian, who also did the part of the second vocalist on Don't Come Around Here. So, yeah, there are still human vocals on that track, not quite so much as the vocal synth Eleanor Forte. Originally, all of these songs were supposed to have my voice on it, but, uh, I was literally learning to sing…by recording these songs. So it was extrеmely arduous, required a lot of frеquent rerecording, and in the end the only vocal take I was truly happy with was the one on the Brave Little Abacus cover. Of all those songs, that’s the one I'm happyist has a vocal I really love. It wouldn't have done the original justice without it. Listening back, it’s hilarious how obvious my California accent is when I sing. The way I say the word "you" is just, like, ugh, you little valley girl you!

But still, even after releasing the version of cheap booze with my vocals on it, I just couldn't enjoy the song with such a different performance on there than the one I heard in my head. You'll also notice the track "Toluca Lake" featured absolutely no vocals of any kind, and, yeah, I just hated every vocal melody and any and all lyrics I ever tried to fit it to. Which sucks, because I love how diverse that instrumental is–it has mandolin on it! Those songs aren't presented in the order they were written, but rather a rough track listing that I think flows decently. Like, that Brave Little Abacus track wasn't originally going to be on a full length, it was supposed to be the B-side to a single

If ever I were to describe a project of mine as having been stuck in development hell, it's the Living Room Ghost full length, no question, but that's not for lack of trying. You'd think Covid would’ve had something to do with that, and, ehhh, yeahhh, kinda? But Chris and I both worked at a rehearsal studio at the time, Stage One Studios in Orange County, shouts out to Rob, you’re the only good boss I ever had. This meant we could go in late at night and record all we wanted in one of the rehearsal rooms. This also meant we were free to toil over this thing as much as we wanted, constantly tracking and re-tracking instruments, restructuring songs, fucking with the tracklist, cutting songs, adding songs back in, mashing song fragments together, reaching out to guest musicians, you name it. If you want an idea of how bad this got, The song you just heard, Some Blood, was originally four minutes, but I kept making it longer until it hit nearly fucking seven and a half. If you want another example, I wrote out sheet music for every single orchestral instrument on the record in hopes we could find musicians to record them proper. In the end, as far as the material you just heard goes, my friend William from the band Kara's Walk Home wound up contributing trumpet on Cheap Booze, and that was it

While it was an incredibly creatively rich time for me, it also meant this album was stuck on the same material that wasn’t getting finished in the time it took us to finish newer, better material, and it just never came together. It always felt like, at any point we could have released something, there were always concessions being made. Still, it was, aside from being able to live with my wife and our cat for the first time, my one solace throughout my time living in that place I disliked as much as I felt like it disliked me. The next songs you're going to hear were originally written as commissions for various clients over the years. This acted as supplementary income as I was working two part-time jobs that themselves weren't making ends meet. I'll get into what these songs were written for after you’ve had a chance to hear them