Nebula appeared in the studio one day like an odd thread or a piece of yarn. Being a weaver and spinner-of-sorts, this analogy makes sense for me making records. I picked that thread up and followed where it wanted to go, whether I knew what I was doing (rarely) or I didn’t ( usually).The real gift in this work is the freedom to do something totally wrong, and then explore if there’s a way to do it right… or not do it at all.
I played all the keyboards, synths, and guitars (ridiculous fun) except for the fantastic ‘whale guitar’ that Abe plays, swimming through and in and out of the track.
The great artist John Cowan played the bass part that totally stands the tune on its head. Scott Babcock applied his layer of wonderful drums, and then, bassist Carl Sealove played a harmony to one of the guitar parts—so yeah, two basses on Nebula.
But then, my friend the brilliant artist ShyBoy (Jason Arnold of Hypnogaja] who is a master of vocal layering, created the choir parts on the chorus, which blew me away, especially his ethereal harmony. And then another brilliant artist, my Refugees partner Cidny Bullens added to that magical choir. I love the sound of ShyBoy and Cid layered.
There was nothing about this story that I was able to “craft.” The words were a thread I had to follow, just like the music. So I guess, the process itself was surreal, although the final result seems quite clear to me..on a good day…
I had so much fun working on this, it’s practically criminal.