ok. history: when my path changed suddenly in early 2002, i started to seriously try and make music for the first time. i felt a little behind schedual, seeing as i was 20 years old. i was in a band called Soon Not Sun (sün) which is where i learned how to write songs and where i began to train myself to sing. after Soon Not Sun (sün) disbanded in december of 2002, i spent months vigorously writing songs by myself and choosing between a large number of possible project names. after multiple viewings of "dead poets society" i found myself metaphorically reaching out to my past teachers (the ones who cared) and in tribute to the idea of individual education i chose "thank you mr. keating" as my project name. during this winter of 2002 i made what was in essence my first solo document "the winter 2003 tape" which was 90 minutes long and recorded in a piecemeal fashion into a single track tape recorder. i would keep re-taking a song until it was right, then move on. the material on this tape was largely material i would re-record for my first album. in march of 2003 i was in a car accident that left me and my car in perfect working order but left gigantic scrapes down the side of my car. rather than have it repaired i used the insurance money to buy my first studio, a macintosh with digital mixer and eMagic Logic Pro. using this i crafted my first EP "Ø" named for the record label it was to be the very first release on. this ep is online for free HERE . after this ep i released my first album "right before the skies turned black". not many people i have worked with like the first album they made, but i thankfully don't hate mine. it definately is representative of what i was going thru at the time and still has a few clever moments, most noteable "my chance encounter with mr. green" which is technically the first thing i multitracked by myself. that swelling ending still gets me as it did when i would drive to work at 4am during that period, listening to it over and over, feeling like something bigger was over the hill. after this album came out in july of 2003 i began work on a follow-up, an album entirely of romance. called "illegal treasures" it contained 14 songs about romance with women, and has been the last of any romantic songs i have written/released. i kinda just wanted to get it out of my system, you know? i wrote a trilogy of songs for a lady named jess and we have been together ever since.
it was at this point that things changed in an interesting way. i began to unearth notions and feelings that reached back to my earliest thoughts of nature/life/time. i became convinced of the multiverse, and i believe that every single possibility is manifest in endless alternate timelines. this became the foundation for my writing for the next 4-5 years (current). i began weaving a large story of a man who was unstuck in time. i ended up recording 2 albums worth of material by may 2005, one of which was recorded mainly on the macintosh, one of which was recorded mainly on 4 track. i compiled what i believed was best in quality musically from the 2 albums and released it as "atheists, reconsider: above and below the stars volume one" in may 2005. then i sort of sat on the other album for a while... summer 2005 i moved with jess and knate baker and dr. walrus into a cozy manor in danbury, where i began working on a triple concept EP/album called "some/secret/songs". "some" was a story about a man who thru accidental time travel is stuck reliving the same sequence of events forever until he figures out how to break free. each song title began with the word "some". "secret" was about an area on the manor's roof that is secluded, and a multi-interpretational "conflict with the sky". "songs" was about real life situations i was in, and also it's about writing songs. it ends with the first song from "some" redone as a "full band song". each EP had 6 tracks and i threw a "making-of" sound collage at the end making it 19 tracks and over an hour long. at the end of the year in 2005 i put together an EP out outtakes and extra material called "hazel" for a buddy of mine and his label Ought Implies Can Records . this EP is available for free right HERE . in march 2006 the macintosh stopped recording. i put together a new studio in summer 2006 and resumed work on everything. i finished "the fermentation of reels and discs: above and below the stars volume two" in early 2007, and "some/secret/songs" is still technically unreleased, but it is finished. what i have been working on for the time in between are "above and below the stars volumes 3 and 4" which are mostly written, partially recorded and for the first time in album contexts, has me attempting a linear plot. these two concept albums are wholely seperate from eachother, but meant in sequence. the demos for these albums are being compiled as "sequence III" and "sequence IV" and are intended for free release on the internet, pending my work making them into tremendously multitracked, guitar smeared blasts of sonic bliss. "sequence III" has been done since summer 2007 and "sequence IV" is nearly done, with an aim for an early january release in full. im really hoping these albums do as well as i think they can.
also i am in a band called "the striders" where you will find an occasional thank you mr. keating song re-imagined as a striders song. the striders are a 4 piece indie dream pop quartet from danbury/new haven CT. go to their myspace page for more info or download our new free EP "in between scylla and charybdis" at doesntmakesense.com"in the event that you find certain sequences or ideas confusing, please bear in mind that this is your fault . . . you will need to see the picture again and again until you understand everything." - steven soderburgh
