Scratch

I can't escape my hometown.  My Sunburned Town.  Its coves and shorelines, its pine trees, its summer rain.  It is a constant drip drip drip that seeps out of me and into my songs. And part of that, for me, is hurricanes.  I remember printed maps of the Caribbean distributed with every purchase by the Albertson's grocery store, where I had my first job. I remember sleepless nights, waiting for the coordinates of the storm, plotting the latitude and longitude, and connecting it to the previous location to get a sense of the trajectory. In this episode we discuss:  y you should sing your guitar solos The beauty and weirdness of pedal steel guitar

You can find lyrics in anywhere. In this song's case it was - paint samples. Someone had left behind a Sherwin Williams paint sampler (the kind that splays out like an Asian folding fan).  I was absent mindedly flipping through it one day and realized that the names of paint colors are ridiculous and fantastic.  So I went to the color “blue” and pulled out ones that I thought sounded interesting and rhymed: Indigo / Nautilis / Open Sea / Georgian Bay In this episode we discuss: How practicing doesn't necessarily make you better, but it does make you more observant and flexible Paulstretch - the best way to make sound collages How alternate tunings enable the familiar to become foreign

I've always wanted to write a New Order-tinged electro rave-up, and now I have. "Glitter on the Dancefloor" is that rare flight of genre fantasy that has a reasonable payoff. In this episode we discuss: Songwriting being akin to painting landscapes on postage stamps Mixing whisper tracks into vocal performances The ZVex Fuzz Factory (one of my secret weapons)

Its hard to write something that's truly contemporary.  It takes time to reflect on a thing from a position that isn't just reactionary and have a perspective that's worth sharing.  "Afghanistan" tries to split the difference - it's a song written quickly and instinctively while watching the fall of Kabul on CNN, but recorded with more intent. In this episode we discuss: Writing songs that are equal parts music, storytelling, and journalism Using formant filters (Little Alterboy for the win!) The deceptive simplicity of true belief

You find weird things about Las Vegas once you're there for more than a long weekend.  There aren't any bookstores anywhere near the strip.  The entire place has a kind of druggy rhythm - taxi drivers and breakfast chefs in the morning, alcohol and smoke in the evening.  It smells like bad cigars and mothballs and plastic and sunscreen. And it's a great place to set an apocalyptic rock song. In this episode we discuss: Writing impressionistic narratives through word collages Using instruments intentionally for the things they're uniquely good at (and not just putting a strummed acoustic behind everything) The Star Trek themed bar in the lobby of the Las Vegas Hilton

Ever wondered how a song goes from an idea into a fully produced recording? Join Kyle Evans (bandleader of Echo Bloom) every two weeks as he documents the birth of a new song and gives a guided tour of how it was constructed. If you're a musician searching for inspiration, a fan looking for the next thing to fall in love with, or just are curious how things are made, come along for the journey.