Boy King Islands

Fifteen years ago, as a day-long trip wore down into Chicago’s summery twilight, the first hints of Boy King Islands were heard in an impromptu song entitled "Feeling Nowhere." I don’t remember the chord changes Jason was playing, nor do I remember anything else I sung over them; What I do recall is how organically the collaboration unfolded, and it wasn’t due to the psychedelics on the small Felix the Cat blotter paper.
Back then, Jason and I played together with schoolmates and friends Keith Kreuser (drums) and Jacob Croegaert (bass) in a band which went through many incarnations, but we predominantly played live hip-hop with emcees Andrew Reece, and later Kenny Jenkins (aka Diverse). Schooling took us in different directions, but years later I moved back from NY and was sharing an apartment with the three of them. It was then - in the winter of 2002/2003 - that Boy King Islands came to be.
I was approached by Rob Sevier of the Numero Group to do a My Bloody Valentine cover. Frank Wobbly & Sons, an off-shoot of Milwaukee’s Wobblyhead Records was doing a limited-edition 7" series, and my song would be the B-Side to MBV’s "Nothing Much to Lose" by Signaldrift & Brian Foote of Nudge (who mixed and is currently touring with Bradford Cox’s project Atlas Sound). I opted to do an original, and had Jason play classical guitar on the chorus. That song is "The Girl With The Stained Glass Eyes," and was released in early 2004.
Throughout that cold winter, Jason’s song ideas would creep through the thin walls of our apartment, and we quickly committed to working together on more material. I had been dating a girl who worked at the Carl Hammer Gallery in Chicago, and she gave me a small print by an artist they were featuring: a genius named Henry Darger who had secretly created a 15,145 page masterpiece illustrated with watercolor drawings and collage. On it - among other phrases - was "Boy King Islands," and that effectively named our project.
We recorded primarily in our apartment and, after I returned to NY, we completed the album in studios both in Evanston and New York over the course of the next couple years. Jason and I have since collaborated both on songs for my last release on Mush, Mirrors for Eyes, and on new Boy King Islands material; However, our first album, Fall, is especially meaningful to me. I hope you enjoy it!
-- Zachary Mastoon aka Caural, March 28, 2008