Alan: Tom and I released a new album today. Check it out!

Transfer Point — Liverpool Street

I spent a lot of time riding trains and busses in London when I lived in England. Liverpool Street Station is a major transfer point on the east end of central London near St. Paul’s cathedral and the Tower of London, where multiple train, tube, and bus lines converge. I’m pretty sure I passed through there on the day I moved to King’s Lynn, and on the day I moved to Maldon a year later. There isn’t a picture of Liverpool Street in my archive, but I did find this picture taken on the top deck of a red double decker bus somewhere in north London.

This album bounces like a tumbleweed over a few genres and soundscapes, mixing acoustic, guitar rock, and electronic sounds. The subject matter is sometimes deadly serious, but we start and end the album with some good, old-fashioned, lighthearted nerdiness. Tom and I take turns on all of the instruments, and both of us contributed original compositions.

The Fight Within and The Battle of Bull Run were both significantly remixed and remastered for the album. You can still find the original mixdowns at the links above. On The Fight Within I also re-recorded the backing vocals and the guitar solo. The day before I redid the guitar solo I found a vintage Fender tube amp at a pawn shop, so I had to use it on a recording. I wasn’t satisfied with how wimpy the solo sounded on the original mixdown, and I think you’ll agree with me if you compare them. I am excited to use this beast of an amp on future recordings.

Tom: these recordings were made from 2021 to 2024 – a large span of time and a large span of genres. Whereas our 2021 release “Right On Time” was tied together roughly by the various colors of R&B / rock fusion, this collection of 8 songs doesn’t have a clear musical theme throughout. We considered for a moment creating separate EP’s (short albums) based on the large umbrella of synthpop/electronic pop music (like the experimental “Tumbleweed” and pleasant synth ballad “Unit Circle”) and acoustic/folk rock (like the gentle and somber “Battle of Bull Run” and the introspective pop of “The Fight Within”) but our journeyings and schedules haven’t yet permitted a nice musical bow to tie things together.

Rather, I think there are some commonalities in topic with these 8 songs: belonging, acceptance, self-realization, endurance. And then there is a surf rock treatment of J.S. Bach to act as a fun but perhaps unrelated prelude to the more serious introspection the other tracks. I find these songs are a great journal of some of the deep thoughts and feelings we both have stewed over the last three years and don’t often chat about in other ways but song. I would be pleased if you could, by listening, help us take the journey.