Back in 2016, my friends Jared and Colin had a quirky little cello/guitar duo. They created long, complex compositions in a classical vein and played a few small shows. I once did a reading with them as my backing band. They also provided the ambiance for my release party for The Living. They were awesome, and eventually, they left me no choice but join them.
Sometime in 2017, my friend Noel and I jumped in there, literally DOUBLING the size of the band! Noel played Wurlitzer, a vintage electric piano. I played Therevox, a string-operated synthesizer that sounds a bit like a violin. We called ourselves Thing Quartet.
Colin and Jared had a lot of material already composed, and we put a lot of effort into adapting it to the newly expanded lineup. These were long, complicated songs with many different sections and little in the way of landmarks—no verse/chorus structure, no vocals, no drums. I for one found myself getting lost in them, and it took many, many practices to figure out everyone’s roles. Which was a problem when practice time was so scarce due to careers, families, etc.
Kids, do your band shit when you’re young and free. It does not pair well with responsibility.
We spent so long tinkering with these jams, it started to feel like a joke. Years went by and none of our friends had heard a single note. Was this whole thing some kind of prank? A front for a money laundering operation? A terrorist cell? What’s he building in there?
I moved three hours away. Colin built a house and had another kid. The fabric stretched further and further until we decided we just needed to FINISH something. RELEASE something. Prove that we really existed. The world is unraveling, the music industry is collapsing, it’s no time to be precious.
So we picked this one song, recorded it, and released it. Here it is. We exist. And to be fair, calling it a “song” might be underselling it. It’s 8.5 minutes long and contains roughly six distinct movements.
We actually released it a few weeks ago, but only on Bandcamp, the last bastion of “supporting artists” in a world of parasitic streamers that are actively dismantling the significance of music in our culture. It was a feeble little gesture of protest. But in addition to protesting, we also want people to hear our music. And we understand—reluctantly—how things are now.
So, here ya go. We’re now on all the streamers. Enjoy our tunes today via the parasite of your choice.
Lastly, hey, check this out—I made a “music video.” Kind of. In the ramshackle spirit of this whole endeavor, I cobbled together a collage of low-res cell phone clips that I took over the last ten years. It’s by no means the production I believe this music deserves, but it is a thing. Which is better than no thing. Please enjoy these things from Thing Quartet.
