I Just Rediscovered My Guitar.

I Feel Like There's A Lot Of Beauty In The Darkness Of 'narrow Stairs,' But That's Not Really A Place I'm Ready To Go To For A While. I'm Interested In Taking A Different Approach And Having The Next Record Be Different In Tone - I'm Just Not Interested In Making Another Dark, Dark Album.

There Were Two Recording Studios In Bellingham. One Was Really Expensive, A "nice Studio." We Were At The Point Where We Were Young And Irreverent. We Would Scoff At The Idea Of A Nice Studio. "why Would You Want To Go To A Nice Studio? Oh Wow, They Have Really Expensive Gear. Ooh, That's Really Fancy. Well We've Got An Eight-track. We've Got It Going On Here." Now That We Have The Resources, We're Like, "oh Wow, A Nice Studio Is Pretty Nice! They Do Have Nice Outboards Here. It's Actually A Pretty Good Place." It's Funny How Much Changes So Quickly.

An Ex-girlfriend Once Got Upset When I Told Her That Music Is The Most Important Thing In My Life. It's More Important Than Anyone Else Could Ever Be. I Don't Want To Be Overly Dramatic And Say It's The Only Thing That Gets Me Up And Keeps Me Going. But People In Your Life Come And Go. As You Go Through Your Life, You Make Friendships, You Break Friendships, You Have Relationships. Music Is The One Thing I've Always Been Able To Rely On.

The Story Of Our Band Is That We Were This Relentless Touring Band In Those Early Years. We Were Leaving Day Jobs And Going Off On The Road And Having Fun And Seeing The Country For The First Time. We Were Playing Chinese Restaurants And Basements And Record Stores And Houses. We Were Crashing On Floors And It Was All New And Exciting. It Was Like A Vacation. It Didn't Feel Like Work. I Couldn't Wait To Go On Tour Back Then. I Would Be Sitting At My Day Job Or My Apartment, Just Itching To Go. There Were So Many Adventures That Were About To Happen.

I Take Things A Little Bit More Critically Now, Like, "what Did I Think I Was Saying In That Song? What Is This Song About?" I Thought The Lyrics Were Incredibly Descriptive, And Now They Sound Really Cryptic And Weird. I'd Like To Also Think That When I Listen To Songs From Something About Airplanes That I'm Proud Of My Development As A Writer. I Don't Think I Was Doing Anything Poorly At That Time, But I Can Certainly See How My Writing Has Changed.