It's been a while since I've posted anything here, so I figured I'd send out an update. Even though I haven't talked about anything publicly, I've been really busy.
First, I have an EP coming out on Perpetual Doom Records very soon. I'm calling it the Perpetual Doom EP because, well, isn't perpetual doom a good way to describe how the rational among us feel anyway?
We don't have a release date yet, but the songs are recorded and ready to go. It will be soon. My right hand man, Jered Davis mixed the audio. and I mastered it.
The Perpetual Doom EP is a collection of six cover songs that I reworked and adopted as my own. I've wanted to record a handful of covers for a long time, but I didn't have a reason to do it until I was asked by Perpetual Doom. It ended up being one of the most fun projects I've ever done. It allowed me to think about the songs and artists that were the most influential to me and reimagine these songs as though I wrote them.
For this EP, I recorded everything through a shitty old Shure mic preamp that I found in the dump in Wisconsin a long time ago and recently fixed at my kitchen table. The EP has got a nice lofi quality throughout and I'm very happy with how it all turned out. I'll send an email when we have a release date and details. I recorded way more than this, but these ones made the cut. I can't wait for you to hear them! Perhaps there will be a Volume II sometime in the future?
For now, why not head over to Perpetual Doom Records and check them out if you're not already familiar? I already feel like I've found a home among other genreless outsiders who just make the music that's in their heads without worrying about fitting in anywhere. It's art for art's sake. I'm into that.
1 - Cowboy Dan (Modest Mouse)
2 - Cold Cold Ground (Tom Waits)
3 - Heel on the Shovel (16 Horsepower)
4 - Climbing up the Walls (Radiohead)
5 - Anthem (Leonard Cohen)
6 - Mack the Knife (Kurt Weill via Louis Armstrong)
Click the Anthem Link to download the file. Or just stream it at the bottom of this blog post.
The other big project I'm working on is a film score for an arthouse Acid Western that is currently in production. If you don't know what the Acid Western genre is, I'd recommend the films El Topo by Alejandro Jodorowsky or Dead Man by Jim Jarmusch. Both have been influential in my songwriting. Where do you think I got the line a "from each wound my bullets make, a snow white dove shall come" in the song Judgment Day on El Santo Grial: La Pistola Piadosa? El Topo, my friend.
The film is called Lovelock and it's loosely based on the story of Orpheus & Eurydice. It's being created by a man named Eric Key and his team. Here is a writeup about what our process has been like so far. I'm really excited about this project. For as long as I can remember, I've wanted to write a film score.
Lovelock is still in production, but we are hoping to have the film completed by fall of 2025. Eric has a rare spinal cancer and that dictates the pace at which he can work on this. He's got a really interesting story. If you're interested, check out this video about his film making journey in the video below.
Oh yeah, and I'm still slowly writing for a new album. Like I said, I've been busy. Stay tuned. This is going to be a good year in the Slackeye Slim camp.