Cassette
The sky is mostly clear, with billowy clouds towering over the ocean in the distance; like skyscrapers on the sea. You could see them if you stood right in the middle of the street: past the dangling utility wires, past the rumbling streetcar, past the rolling hills of concrete out to the beach. But now it’s early afternoon in the back garden. A family of house sparrows made a nest in a New Zealand Christmas tree in the neighbor’s yard - they’re awfully chatty today. Green hairstreaks flap effortlessly to the cluster of lemon tree buds and it looks like the clover has thrived in small patches on the lawn.
“Claudia’s Ethereal Weaver” doesn’t have too much of a cohesive story to it, but it encompasses a good amount of my last year and a half: flipping through old Life and National Geographic magazines, taking long walks through San Francisco, and playing Sad Eyed Beatniks live for the first time. Thanks to Mike Ramos, Karina Gill, and Kati Mashikian, we were able to play through a number of these songs before I sat down to record them. Prior to this, most Sad Eyed Beatniks recordings were the first or second attempt at me writing and performing the song. Suddenly, I had to remember both the words and chords and played tracks like “Hysterical Rooters”, “Who’s That”, and “Oh Hallo” well over ten times; which is pretty unheard of in SEBs history. Fortunately, these are paired with impromptu tracks like “Free Composition Number 6” and “Ring Around Annie”; as first takes are often the best takes.
