The Dirge (demo)

Back on the road for a few more weeks

Hello, hello, hello from Washington, DC. I’m currently tour managing/merch-ing/drumming/a little keyboarding for Kevin Morby in the US opening for our good friend Nathaniel Rateliff. So far, the tour has been phenomenal and we’re having a blast. We played King’s Theatre last night in NYC and it’s gotta be one of the most beautiful venues I’ve ever seen.

I’ve been thinking a lot about where my life was 10 years ago today. I was about to move to Asheville, North Carolina. I lived there from December 2013 to December 2014. It was one of the most fruitful years of my life. I call it my year zero. I was able to reset and begin my life as an independently creative person. Before I moved, I had so much fear about writing that I would sit at the guitar or piano, depleted by option paralysis. I would write some bars of music, sometimes one page if I was really lucky. Nothing ever materialized into art that I could share with my friends. I finally ripped off the band-aid of fear when I released my first solo record, Out Of Habit. It’s just solo acoustic guitar straight into a Tascam 388, but I had to put something out. We pressed 200 copies and they promptly sold out. That gave me a lot of confidence to write and complete songs that were just sitting around as half-grumbled voice memos.

I moved into a small cottage in Woodfin and had no furniture, no Wi-Fi, nothing. It was as monastic as it could possibly be. I think people were worried about me, but I loved having very few possessions. I had an abundance of free time, so I went out and bought a vintage Airline guitar and a small amp from Heyday Music. I would sit down every morning and write songs…and sing them…and finish them! That rarely happened and I was so eternally grateful. I think being secluded led to some incredible breakthroughs and I felt true peace for the first time. Eventually, I had 70-80 pieces that were all over the map stylistically. Some of them went towards the first Lithuania record (my project with best bud Dominic Angelella) and some went towards my second (but first proper) solo record Palisades. I’m not that proud of Palisades but there are two tunes that I think are pretty good. One is called “The Dirge”.

I wrote it one morning at 7 AM as the sun was coming out. It’s one of those songs that just fell out of me. It was done in 10 minutes. In hindsight, it feels like that to me. It rambles along and has an odd chord structure. Things don’t happen in an even amount of bars. It feels tenuous I wish I still had the original voice memo to show you.

So what’s “The Dirge” about? I’m pretty sure it’s about leaving home for the first time. Here’s the opening verse:

And it makes you cry
Save it for a little while
You won't see me again

So I leave you here
Masquerade your
Hopes and fears

I was processing the feeling of truly being alone in this new place. I didn’t have too many friends but I was learning how to support myself. I wanted to ease into adulthood. I was listening to Dion’s Born To Be With You record a lot, as well as John Cale’s Paris 1919. To me, that influence really shines through.

Over time, I did buy furniture for the house and I was able to drive some old equipment down from Philadelphia. I borrowed a Tascam four-track from my friend Matt Schnable and one Shure SM7 from the Dr. Dog studio. I made the demo for “The Dirge” very quickly and didn’t think much of it. I ended up recording a full band version in Anacortes at Phil Elverum’s Unknown Studio. I’m struck by how closely the demo resembles the finished product. You decide! (for paid subscribers)

Thanks again for reading this, and I can’t wait to share more news with you soon. Lots of excitement is on the horizon.

Love,

Eric