Charlie and I started work yesterday on "Gen X," one of the last handful of songs to record for Highway Gothic. Demo version here.

This one fought back—I've probably got five sets of draft lyrics with various bits inserted and crossed out, along with sticky notes and scraps here and there in both my music notebook and my planner. I've had the chorus for almost a year, but the verse structure...oof. I actually cried a little when I realized the chords were finally where they needed to be.

In non-Highway Gothic news, Charlie and I are going to work on assembling and mastering a compilation of Homebrew tracks. Most likely that'll be out after the album, sometime in 2018. 

It seems like I might need to say this, though I wish to god it weren't necessary: "White Flag" is in NO way a song about white nationalism—it's about surrender to many, many different things—and if you're a white nationalist who thinks it somehow supports you, you can fuck right off. I don't need or want Nazi fans. End of statement.

ICYMI: here's the Homebrew version of a new one.

We'll be recording this later today. I ache for the vintage Gibson 12-string—similar to this one—we used to be able to play at the late lamented Workshop Jones, but we'll make do.

I think we'll be adding a bit of e-bow or mellotron to the arrangement, maybe some banjo or mandolin, maybe some light percussion.

This song, btw, wasn't even part of my mental map of the album until I wrote it a couple of weeks ago. I was cleaning up some papers and found a scrap on which I'd scrawled "I've tried to hold it in / Maybe I've lost the war." I dimly remember making that note a few months ago, on the very edge of sleep (not even sitting up properly in bed, not putting on glasses, just scratching it out on the first piece of paper that came to hand). I can't remember whether this melody was attached—though when I found the note, the melody came to me so immediately that I must have had an inkling of it before. That means it's one of several recent songs that have come from sleep or near-sleep. My unconscious brain is doing a better job at this than my conscious mind.