This was the first time I ever wrote a song with any idea that someone might hear it. This whole record felt like a love letter to all the deepest things I love about music. I knew I wanted the opening lines of this song to pair up with the […]

Another song in which I still prefer the demo version; in this case it was kind of Wilco-y with an acoustic guitar and piano harmonies. This is about my dad who met mom when he got out of prison, trying to stay clean, how idealistic they were, how hopeful for […]

The first of the two anti-war songs on this record, I think this whole group of songs (you could include The Winning Side and Neda) stemmed from a desire to tell the stories of people at war that weren’t being told at home. We had a lot of vets at […]

This song is about the two incidents during the war in Afghanistan in which US drones mistakenly bombed Afghani wedding parties. I guess I wanted to say something about the idiocy of trying to win “hearts and minds” with bombs. In retrospect, it seems obvious. The guy screaming during the […]

This song almost didn’t make the record. The whole album was done and at the final hour I wanted to add this quiet little acoustic song as a sort of epilogue. People were against it. It was really long and wordy and kind of esoteric at times. I never thought […]