Artwork by https://soundcloud.com/kevin-hackett
Mixed by https://soundcloud.com/toccimc
Producers in order:
https://soundcloud.com/madeinm
https://soundcloud.com/asmuvone
https://soundcloud.com/tinytemples
https://soundcloud.com/distant-lo/
https://soundcloud.com/itselayez

first collection of songs made public. feedback appreciated. some beats used without explicit permission, as the individual never returned my messages.

☼ deep august ☼

this is 'for the birds'. check the description of the tracks for lyrics and some background to the song.

incredibly grateful for any reposts or feedback, thanks for listening everyone.

graciously engineered by https://soundcloud.com/ibr
artwork by https://soundcloud.com/kevin-hackett

for the birds

Artwork by https://soundcloud.com/kevin-hackett
Mixed by https://soundcloud.com/toccimc
Producers in order:
https://soundcloud.com/madeinm
https://soundcloud.com/asmuvone
https://soundcloud.com/tinytemples
https://soundcloud.com/distant-lo/
https://soundcloud.com/itselayez

first collection of songs made public. feedback appreciated. some beats used without explicit permission, as the individual never returned my messages.

deseando ☼ distant.lo ✕ elayez

rod and reel ☼ smuv ✕ Chris Wright

boiar ☼ made in m

sol y luna ☼ lewi astro

november 1, 2016
produced by definition 

how can we save the earth?

lyrics:
and brick by brick they mend their ties
cold rolling hills under clear blue skies
the tracks carry on through the valley below
as all the empty trains go and rattle home

there's methane in the ancient ice

yeah

up at the crack of dawn, stretching sea to sea
and if its red it's a warning with no secrecy
from the horizon to the shore it could keep
and as the crows come calling the new day leaps

from the hills and it's real where the permafrost thaws
midnight dawn takes a certain cost to rise up
as the towns pay their dues so divided
the families feel it like mine does

and every year the glacier move faster
it's a little older serving two masters
can i face my kids saying we never tried
hope they call for moses when the sea levels rise

add a little heat to the equation
ice keeping secrets like a freemason
flock casting shade as it fly by
there will always be birds in the sky right?
i don't know

well they fly through the sky looking down they have nowhere to land
so much left under the surface but now watch the iceberg calve

graciously engineered by https://soundcloud.com/ibr
artwork by https://soundcloud.com/kevin-hackett

ancient ice

august 23, 2016
produced by inhale

inspired by independent professional wrestlers, who drive 500 kilometers for a $40 payday. written on the trip back from such a show. support ontario indy wrestling.

lyrics:
find my way home by the bumps and the curves of the road
yeah
they're a band of highwaymen and now and then
they're stealing away the night

they drifted in to town on fumes
cigarette smoke pouring out the window
tractor trailers wearing costumes
every brand they carry they bear the symbols
and i mimic it with the prints that my feet make
as they whisper down the concrete snake
wonder what they said when they told their folks
wanted to be a dad so they adopted the road

and the tires don't mind all the broken glass
roll past the man under the overpass
on a beeline for the factories
might need to recharge my batteries
so i hit the pavement strip
x2

they're a band of highwaymen and now and then
they're stealing away the night

graciously engineered by https://soundcloud.com/ibr
artwork by https://soundcloud.com/kevin-hackett

highwaymen

september 30, 2016
produced by idealism

early morning observations & daydreaming sitting at the crossroads of highway 6 and regional road 5. impossible to tell where the fog and smoke from the chimneys become one.

lyrics:
there's fog rolling in off the harbor
crossing from the bow going starboard
another long shift don't mind if they didn't
slipping in the mist as it curls in the rigging

and they can't see that through that hamilton fog
theyre rising up with the Hamilton fog
breaking through the sky are the stacks of smoke
and they're all running to and fro til their back is broke

fams riding on an updraft, tryna make mine proud
it swirls through like a top as the day winds down
becomes a melting pot, it's really why they mix
so it settles in the valley off of highway six

breeze off the lake catches them and throws it in the windsock,
planes taxi out and they lift off, ascend
and i'm on the 403 stuck in gridlock again
747s fly through that hamilton fog

shift change bells from the top of the hill
it's a town that rose on the mines and mills
they take their place at the back of the unemployment line


graciously engineered by https://soundcloud.com/ibr
artwork by https://soundcloud.com/kevin-hackett

hamilton fog

september 17, 2016
produced by clam
vocal harmonies by ibrahim 

I manageproduction at a commerical bakery. my day to day life is defined by machine breakdowns and loaf cakes. the birds fly over the brick and mortar, most of the people wish they could join them.

lyrics:
i 
live and die by the timecard
but i'm for the birds and tryna fly far
clock is ringing and they stop the singing
flocks carry on without our permission

they don't ask for the weather changes
didn't think as a seventh grader
i would be here, i don't see clear
looking glasses say they never made it

maybe 20/20 when a mils made
yeah blue collar but the bills paid
i don't really care about the shirt
where were headed i'm not really sure like woah

and their, thoughts linger when they're going home
and it seems the machines are the metronome
they set the pace for the workers running down the line
all the glory bound, the beaten down
it's where you've gotta pull your weight and not throw it around
in the place where the workers running down the line

graciously engineered by https://soundcloud.com/ibr
artwork by https://soundcloud.com/kevin-hackett

shift change

august 6 2016
produced by alper altrek

written for and about a town called bancroft in the province of ontario, which at the time of recording, now has three drive thrus (two tim hortons and one mcdonalds). the town is on a main route to one of our biggest national parks. many travellers stop for a coffee in bancroft but no longer. spent every summer up there for over a decade with my father - i think about you when i drive through a one drive thru town.

lyrics: 
and as the world pass by i've got a front row seat on the drivers side
so they wave goodbye

i think about you when i drive through a one drive thru town
x2

small town underneath a big blue sky
main street all the cars just cruise by
they only see the fronts of the buildings
they never stop and just listen
to the woman who's been here since the churches were risen

she's got a story to tell, my chin wagging to think
how they exist with way more chip wagons than banks
and they staked their ground, across the fields and the surface
must've strengthened their backs just to carry the burden

man i love it up there it gets my cranium right
from the eagles nest to the uranium mine, on the canadian shield

i think about you when i drive through, a one drive thru town

graciously engineered by https://soundcloud.com/ibr
artwork by https://soundcloud.com/kevin-hackett

drive thru town

july 26, 2016
produced by methone

wrote this at the cottage during a hot summer thundershower that ruined a beach trip.

lyrics:
cause we're waiting out the rain
waiting out the rain
oh you know i been bitter when it rains man
got me spinning round like a weather vane

oh but my mind's okay
with a sky so grey
it's looking like the matter on my brain
see it splatter on the pavement
everybody run for some cover, it was the agent
they hurry and they trip and they stumble
man I been aging
cement them ties
i'm just trying to ferment and get better with time

yeah
ay
waiting
out the
rain

traffic slowly spilling down the hill
and there's thunder coming from around the bend
the season passing for the coming chill
arrive in fashion but we buck the trends
so tell your fam to keep the covers warm
listen up and smell the coming storm
everybody stupid 'cause they went and hung around
better get the kids and bunker down

i don't really ever try to waste time
staring at the waveform feel it in the bassline
and i know that's how they found
looking at the farm fields as the cows lay down
its okay though, it will pass whatever like if you say so
really ain't no need to keep the shades low
underneath the weather

so let it rain
yeah
waiting out the rain
yeah
so let it rain
while we're waiting out the rain


graciously engineered by https://soundcloud.com/ibr
artwork by https://soundcloud.com/kevin-hackett

under the weather

october 5, 2016
produced by lucas

this song inspired the idea of 'for the birds'. thinking about the changing of seasons and the 'movement of the meridian sun as we approach the noontime of our lives'. 

lyrics:
we're living in the good old days
but I'm so stuck in my waaayyyaayyayyys
Cupcakes with sprinkles
then my skin is wrinkled
in a rush for growing older
pringles on my shoulder

cause i chipped off the block
wrist in my shot
yeah I been chilling think its really all for naught
but I don't even know

when it all goes south and they fly away
you find me on my couch like all sunday
and i haven't been in church much late
i was thinking that it sealed my fate, and the leaves stall
when it all goes south it'll be fall

and all my days, moving through it with the rainfall
but it burn my attire
birds on the wire, hear them, always sing the same song
lament the summer when the days gone
and the clocks back and the trees turn then the stems snap
only budding when they get back
bare branches in the dead of the winter
frozen rapids at the head of the river
snow angels, huddled on the bank to stay low
like i'm just tryna find the way home
to my neck of the woods
try to fly the rye nobody said that I could
and pretty soon, snow perched on the houses
the flock flies without us

graciously engineered by https://soundcloud.com/ibr
artwork by https://soundcloud.com/kevin-hackett

migration

December 5, 2016.
Living the dream.
'AS WE WANDER' COMING VERY SOON.
Produced by https://soundcloud.com/hozaythehipster
Mixed by https://soundcloud.com/ibr
Artwork by https://twitter.com/iamkevinhackett

Lyrics:
Underneath the birch trees and the tent caterpillars
So it goes like this

Mmm
Bonfire burns, on for a fortnight
We're just like moths, drawn to the porch light
Circle round them uneven stones
Logs snap and pop like these creaking bones
Light fading out, up on our own terms
Migrating up, hanging with the shore birds
Yeah, Friday night we're going northwards

To the promised land like the Canaanites
moon rise in the plain of sight
And sparks fly in the fading light

Oh, oh, oh
Nestled in the armchair
Evening grove
Circle round them uneven stones
Moon rise in the plain of sight
And sparks fly in the fading light

August dusk like the third column
Planted in a chair, solving world problems
Settled in like dust on the book spines
Always catch me like hook line and sinker
Cause we left Waterloo in a rainstorm
That's how I'm feeling in these tough days
Have mercy on my rough ways

Heading home with the retreating tide
Colours running down the evening sky
flickered off to the west
Lit the pilot light in my chest

Leave it all behind when it's quitting time and head for the promised land

Hinterlands

Covering my favourite folk song, Shenandoah, with a little twist.  Banjo tuned to double c, g & c harmonicas and vocals. Inspired by the man watercolorsunshine.

Bound Away (Shenandoah)

A song for the white pine loggers.
Reading material: http://disastersongs.ca/peter-amberley/

Produced by https://soundcloud.com/knuckles00
Mixed by https://soundcloud.com/polearm

Words:
Come all, you gallant men of New France
We're going to the booming grounds
Axes sharp and pike poles set in
We're going to the booming grounds

(Hey)
We'll be swinging fast 'til the papers made
(Hey)
Work hard as dogs for a paupers wage
They crack the whip as we tame the wild woods
Clear cut the old growth of childhood
Pine burls in frozen soil
And the world turns as oceans boil
Shanty boys, hear the ringing of the axe
Spring comes, hear the singing through the camps
Teamsters, I been running here
From my cruellest father and mother dear
Another night of salt beef for dinner
But it's finally spring so we'll drive the river
Across the ice and through the snow
Sun shining bright, away we go

Called from my house like Abraham
So I risk my life just to break the jam
There's mangled legs when I meet my shallows grave
Death does lurk where the wood chips sail and fly
So they nailed my boots to the pine
No man around to bring the Word from Galilee
Crosses on the bank, long way from Calvary

Come all, you gallant men of New France
We're going to the booming grounds
Axes sharp and pike poles set in
We're going to the booming grounds

Booming Grounds

gestalt // waterloo
semi retired folk bangers
training to be an opera singer now lol
call me roland

Boy from Berlin

Pinned to spotlight

Popular tracks