The title of this project came before any of the music in my second EP and reflects the strongest motif in this season of life. The tapestry of this season is built by chasing after monarchs on long walks with Aloo, sharing the flavors of nature’s bounty with loved ones, and reveling in the renewal that spring welcomes. I continue to search and find my flow in creation, specifically with recording.

After long jams and recording around 8 tracks, a growing feeling in my gut told to tell me to start over and head back to the drawing board. I exerted a lot of effort to push this feeling away and press on with the work that was started, but the feeling would not shake.

I submitted to the message from the universe, and decided to head back to the gear, away from the laptop. I let go and dove back into jamming and exploring - on one occasion, Cha Cha (chana masala) challenged me to play fast, "Hit me with some 160 shit”… new territory for me. Experimenting with distortion pedals, acid, percussion, and a sample from a WW2 historical record lead me to the track "render". The captured jam was 20 min long, and brought me to my perpetual challenge: condensing moments sewn delicately into a final cohesive feeling. Enjoy a driving slow burn, acid techno with a hard knocking kick and distorted horns.

"gnawing" came next in a very similar way - back to the hardware. Exploring a bubbling dub with a round bass line to hold a steady groove with the Korg Minilogue XD. The pad came in first by accident, and I ended up living in the pad jam for hours before composing the stabs using the same synth voice. I experimented with reverb, distortion, and echo pedals and rode the track through some feedback. Once the ground was set, the track came together quickly and arranged itself in the DAW.

"growing older" is a late night jam session Cha Cha and I had experimenting with new sounds and flows. Cha Cha strings together a canopy of luscious, sparkling melodic rhythms, while I work on rooting the track in its bed. We spent several hours in the vortex and came away with this clip. The vocals come from a voice recording sent from our dear friend, Ahva, exchanging messages about how inspired we felt by moments of gathering, feeding peoples’ bellies and souls, as well as lamenting on how much love we have for our friend group, the Tender Bruvs. This track feels too cute and tender a moment to not include with this project and wraps it up perfectly in my eyes.

Continuing... to feel loved, to choose love, to feel connected to all of you and to the earth.

-edited by chana masala