MOTIVES, VOL. II
PAGANS
PAGANS is graceful rebellion.
The path here was an ugly one.
Emily and I saw loss in more ways than one. Careers abandoned, families broken, religions escaped. There was a gloomy air of desolation that lingered overhead from the onset of the coronavirus crisis up to this point. So much was lost and left behind.
Except for each other.
March of 2022, we took a step back from the world in crisis and joined in the studio. As judged and ostracized as we became for being nonchristian, we found solidarity in our music, ourselves, and our path.
What came next was so much more than I could have ever imagined.
A perpetual slumber party with druid rock and charcuterie.
My proposal for this installation was simple: Motives was a good start -
lets keep that momentum going. This time, I wanted it to be complex,
dark, and theatrical.
And we fucking delivered.
The sharpest contrast was the production environment. Same trailer,
but this time around we ran the show. No intrusions or interruptions, and
certainly no noise complaints. Our only adversary was the limited
equipment we were left with due to the catastrophe that was our former
landlord.
Producing this album shouldn’t have been this fun. Mind you, we made some dire miscalculations on hallucinogens and almost gave ourselves alcohol poisoning in the process. But the album was complete with time to spare and so much material that it was practically spilling off the CD.
The three promotional singles had a theme.
Moon Above, Earth Below, and Peace Within were released one-a-month up to the album’s release date of 3/15/23.
The best part? They’re one song. Each track ends where the next begins - meaning that if you listened to them back to back, they would play out as a single song. The three tracks are on the tracklist at songs one, seven, and thirteen, so hearing back from a listener that they figured this out was always a big thing to us.
01. Moon Above
Gather ‘round, sinners.
We really wanted to start out the album with a buildup. Using the same Spitfire Labs patch that was used on Prayers and Papercuts, we picked up where Motives left off. This track was equally a blast and a massive pain in the ass. Emily spent three weeks practicing the slap/pop run in the middle of the song. We had four hours set aside for her to track it in the studio - only for her to get it on the second take. I wanted to end the song on a harsh, dramatic change. We threw in a tempo break and changed all the instruments at the end to give it a witchy, eerie outro that flowed perfectly into Earth Below.
02. Certain of Nothing
Check in on your friends. Check in on yourself. Enjoy the ride.
We planned the album originally without Moon, Earth, and Peace, so this was actually going to be the first track on the album. Emily wanted to start things off with a tribute to one of the biggest artistic influences in her life, Anthony Bourdain. The song title references a tattoo on his arm that paraphrases “scio me nihil scire“, ancient greek for I am certain of nothing. The mood of the song is exactly how I felt about Bourdain. Exotic and interesting, but familiar and direct. I littered the project with Kontakt libraries of Dafs, Riqs, Darbukas and Doumbeks, I went all in on the percussion loops to give it a feel of adventure.
03. Fractals
Carrying on with the Motives tradition, the third track of Pagans was also a fun experiment of odd sonic choices and time signatures. Emily and I sat down with the objective of making this one a hard track to replicate. It was written in three parts - the first was a dusty, attic-core escapism that was reminiscent of forgotten toys awakening in the attic. The second was Eve’s brainchild, a combination of Celtic voices, tuned gongs, and a time signature that would crash your average TI-82. The last part was a heavy, progressive synth amalgam that borrowed elements from earlier in the track. This song was the funnest of the album to make.
04. Falling Ash
April 25, 2022. Emily shot bolt-upright out of bed to get a tap-guitar riff out of her mind and into the DAW. We sprung that riff to life by the simple principle of throw everything at it and see what sticks. The result was a hybrid of symphony and post-metal.
05. Crown Shyness
This track was written as the result of Emily bringing a kalimba along when hiking the wilderness. A melody fell into her fingers as she idly plucked the thing, staring up at the leafy canopy above us. With my unsolicited rambling on the effect of crown shyness - a forest’s tendency for the uppermost branches of trees no to touch, the song was practically written by the time we got back home.
06. Nomad
This is the only track written without Emily with me. I’ve always had an appreciation for weird, exotic instruments. Written mostly on spare time, the song is an adventurous expression of my love for the gifts this wide world gives us.
7. Earth Below
A title track for Pagans if ever there was one. This track embodies the feeling that is granted in moments of graceful rebellion. Borrowing a page from Motive’s Winos at the Eucharist Station, this pseudo-funk orchestral track was written during a state of adventurous mutiny against the norms I was expected to carry for a family that would only notice my death if it inconvenienced them. The track stomps out on ambient noise that serves as a harbinger for the final track of the album, six entries away.
8. Only on the Surface
Saxaphonists and guitarists can get over themselves - the most sexually charged instrument has and always will be the electric piano. Written on a rainy August night, Emily and I ran rampant with the atmospheres and pads that laid as the bed that the piano, bass, and electric piano got quite intimate in. At the end of our first writing session on this track, I said the process is almost simple. Emily replied, “On the surface, maybe.”
9. Blood on Bourbon Street.
This is a spiritual successor to Lonely Thoughts. Drunk on red wine and Emily’s company, I wrote this track as an eerie, mournful atmosphere fit for the dead in foggy New Orleans. I wrote the strings and brass in this to give a sense of impending doom and deep-seated corruption. This track bodes like the thirteenth card of the Major Arcana, by design and due diligence.
10. No Trauma Bonding at the Bar, Please
Summer heat leaves you missing winter. The glow of yesterday’s sunlight could be traded for today’s gold. Regret is the innovator of kindness, as it should always be. Cherish everyone who shows up for you - the best time to love is in the present. The worst time to love is in memoriam.
Dedicated to the memory of Nathaniel Shandon. I hope it snows every day where you are.
11. Through the Looking Glass
Three things had to happen for this track to be born.
We decided to write a track with the speakers turned OFF, just to see what would happen if we composed like Beethoven did.
We were in the throws of a two-week affinity for the neon and decay of the Cyberpunk genre of fiction, and
We were entirely too brave with an unsupervised sheet of LSD.
The resulting track was a bizarre bastard-child of Type-O Negative, Daniel Licht, and Depeche Mode. We regret nothing.
12. Oak Wisdom
The term Druid comes from the proto-Celtic term “dreuwidd”, meaning Knower of the Oak.
This track is a Druid Rock salute to the energy and might of my ancestors.
13. Peace Within
You and I will always have a home, anywhere where good food and good music are served in the shadow of tree branches.