Alternate Storm to a Mislaid Vision was originally called “Weird Lullabies.” This title can be imagined as the writing prompt for all the songs on the album. How can I write a song that is both soothing and unsettling? The first phase was writing soft songs on acoustic guitar with lyrics that were the farthest things from a child’s lullaby—about self-worth, drug abuse, nostalgia, relationships with lovers and friends, depression, anxiety, apathy, astronomy, and more.

Then as preproduction for the album began, the goal became balancing catchiness and intrigue with the “weird.” The album’s opening track, “Ode to a Sunflower,” poses jarring free jazz brutality against earnest and optimistic lyrics about a lover.

We recorded the album in two days at Sunwood Recordings: a chicken barn turned recording studio near Ithaca, NY. It was a whirlwind laying the tracks down while trying to finish in time to beat a blizzard intersecting our route back to NYC. It felt fitting. Recorded to tape on an analog board with vintage mics, the album is gritty and tangible. Ben Seretan lent lap steel on two of the tracks, adding to the sweet but somber tone of the album overall. Guitar, bass, drums, piano, lap steel, and saxophone are the only instruments on the album, with some magic during mixing.

As this independent project has sat in waiting for the last two years, we’ve looked at it from every possible angle and have discovered that the contradiction has created a lasting relatability. Capturing the constant state of flux most of us live in, comfort and discomfort—the future of human existence and the relief of a meme—hand in hand all at once, all the time. Meandering and difinitive at times, “Weird Lullabies” turned into Alternate Storm to a Mislaid Vision. 

Ode To A Sunflower

Experience

Wasting Days

Run For Your Life

If You Are The Sun

Nine Hours

Weird Lullabies

On The Mend

sometimes indie folk sometimes something else

Falls Hall