The Masters

The masters for my new album just came in.

Mastering is that final and mysterious piece of production work on an album—the finishing touch that enhances the overall sound and creates consistency across the record before it goes out into the world.

Dave Kutch mastered this one, as he did side 2 of my album, Golden Future Time. Dave has worked on some of my favourite records of all time, including Erykah Badu’s Return of the Ankh, The Roots’ Undun, and Frank Ocean’s Blond.

There can be this tendency for me, and certainly for a lot of artists I’ve read about, to alternatively love and then despair over—at a relatively evenly-spaced interval of one day on, one day off; or morning off/afternoon on—a piece of mine I work on everyday.

When I first received the masters, I eagerly cued them up, pressed play, and quickly entered “despair” mode. I turned it off after a song and a half. Three years ago I probably would’ve listened to the entire album, deepening my angst track by track until it all formed into a hard little knot of good old fashioned despondency.

But I have wisened (at least in this department, and maybe only temporarily). Sometimes your ears, your head, and your heart are not in the right place to take something in.

Four hours later we cued up the masters at Golden Future Recordings (my label) HQ (Jenny’s apartment) on a surround sound system with a glass of something warm in hand, and the record bloomed to life.

I can’t wait to share this with you. As it may be a while until this rolls off the proverbial shelf, I’ve shared a short teaser from a song on the new album (above). Enjoy.