Making Music in Multiple Locations – The Geography of Family Plot

It’s hard to make an album under any circumstances.

I made my first solo album by accident. My intention was to write my songs, get them really fucking tight, save some money and then pay other people to take care of the production and engineering.

But then the pandemic hit and I felt a wave of liberation. The playing field for all artists had been leveled, it seemed. People were not going to studios to work with big-name producers. They were not going on tour. We were all stuck at home.

Well, for me, “stuck” is not the appropriate word. I reveled in it. I fucking loved it. I was feeling so, so groovy. I decided I would just record my songs the best I could. Make them fucking weird. Use my imagination to cover up my shortcomings as a recording engineer/producer. The record didn’t even have to be good!

microorganism was supposed to take, like, two months to complete. But it took a year and two months. Multiple stops and starts. Numerous dark nights of the soul. Countless dead ends. For just seven songs under almost no pressure, it was a real chore. But I did it!

I thought once I made my first album, producing music would be a cakewalk. I figured I had gotten the hard one out of the way. The one where I had to learn everything and do it all myself. The next record, I reasoned, would probably be finished in just a few months. And I was being generous!

Well, turns out making records is just tough stuff. Especially when you’re trying to do it all alone.

But what made Family Plot so challenging to complete, on top of doing it all by myself, was the geography.

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The FP Odyssey Begins

I started writing the songs for Family Plot just a couple weeks after microorganism had been released, back in May of 2021.

The motivation to finally finish microorganism came from the decision Annie and I made to move out of our house and live life on the road as full-time RVers. We had purchased our rig, attained a vehicle capable of towing said rig and began to downsize in preparation for our upcoming itinerant lifestyle. It was a very exciting time. I didn’t want to be making the album anymore during the time we were preparing to hit the road. So I hunkered down, got it done and put it out.

But immediately I was on to the next thing. Newly estranged from my family of origin at this time, I was compelled to devote all my creative energies to art focused on exploring all the awful aspects of this reality. My family had disowned me and revealed just how little I meant to them. I needed to make a record about it.

Right away, I was able to generate song ideas pretty easily. I figured I would work on writing the songs while we were still settled in our brick and mortar home in Albuquerque. Then once we hit the road, I would start recording them in the trailer. That was the plan. I came up with a title for the record, started conceptualizing the artwork and defining the sonic palette for this set of songs. In my mind, I envisioned that the record would be finished in a few months. Who knows where we would be located! It would all be simple and streamlined on the road in our little trailer. No distractions. No obligations. Ha!

Spoiler alert… The album did not get finished on the road. It did not get released later in 2021, as I had figured it would. It didn’t get finished until many thousands of miles, a few time zones and both coasts later.

I’m writing this in April, 2024, and Family Plot still hasn’t been released. But it’s on its way. And to be honest, I would not change anything about the route it took or the time required to get to this point.

Family Plot didn’t get finished until December 31, 2023. And then it got finished again on Valentine’s Day, 2024, nearly three years since I started writing the songs.

The Coast to Coast FP Itinerary

I began composing in Albuquerque, feeling really good.

Then we hit the road. Immediately, it was not a good time for me, particularly as I lived through my ridiculously unrealistic expectations with regard to finishing the album quickly and easily. There would be no recording on the road, as it turned out. What was I thinking?

RV life was brief. Three months after hitting the road, we were ready to have some space again. But we were not ready to settle back in Albuquerque. We regrouped, spent some time among loved ones in New Mexico. I found time to work on the songs some more. I created the album art. We devised a plan to move to Maine for several months. There was stuff to work on.

We arrived in Sorrento, Maine on December 1, 2021. For most of our time there, it felt like we were the only ones on the peninsula (on a peninsula). Just us and the deer and the foxes and the boats in the harbor.

Six months in Sorrento was exactly what I needed to record the album. I had a great space with high ceilings and inspirational views. I had a plan. I thought I’d finish the album and put it out by the time we left. That didn’t happen. But I recorded 99.9% of it there in that sacred AirBnB on Frenchman Bay.

Then we moved to Atlanta. Then we moved to a different house in Atlanta. I was mixing the album, but it was not going well. And I didn’t like being where we were. Maine was so peaceful and cool. Atlanta was hot and distracting. But I proceeded. Until I could no longer proceed. Fuck!

At some point during our time in Atlanta, we decided to move back, if only for a little while, to Albuquerque. So we packed up again and moved to the house on Alhambra.

Months went by without me working on the album at all. I thought I would have to have someone else take it over and mix it for me. I was lost. Plus, my space sounded like shit.

FP On Life Support

I put Family Plot on the back burner indefinitely. I made an EP, DO YOU FEEL IT TOO?, which I am really proud of. I thought maybe I’d just have to move on from FP. Goddamn.

Really, I was at an impasse with the space. I needed to do something to treat my studio acoustically. But I didn’t have a budget. Eventually, I was able to scrape enough together to obtain the materials to create DIY acoustic absorption panels. I put them up on the walls and recognized that I was back in business.

But the album had issues. So the spring of 2023 was devoted to fixing them. Spring bled into summer. Issues were being corrected, but Jesus, it was so slow. Then we found out we had to move in September.

So I packed up the studio again and we moved our asses up the road to our current location.

Months passed again before I was able to get into album work. Finally, I turned a corner around the holidays of 2023. I got Covid, which put me out for a little bit, but it also kept me isolated in a way that was great for completing the album.

I piloted a burning wreck of an album across the finish line on the final day of 2023. Then I listened to it in the car a week later and had a panic attack.

I hated the album and how it sounded. My sleep-deprived covid-fog brain thought it was good, but it was not. So I got back to work.

Now the album is done. I am really happy with it. Yeah, there’s stuff I could still do to make it “better,” but at a certain point, it just needs to be done. And it is.

And I love it! I am extraordinarily proud of it, and I'm proud of myself for all the effort I put into it. It's everything I wanted it to be and more. And I think it's going to have the impact I want it to have; that I've been dreaming it would have.

FP Sliding Doors

I wonder what would have happened if we decided not to move away and hit the road back in 2021. Would I have finished the album sooner? Would it be out now? Would I be performing those songs with my band, seasoned on stages? Or would the album have remained unfinished? It’s possible Family Plot required all the time and movement it took to get to where it got. I don’t know. But here we are.

What is the moral here? What is the lesson? I guess it’s that stuff is hard. Anything worthwhile in life requires effort. Making records is magical and driven by inspiration, except for when it’s a fucking chore driven by stubbornnes. But records aren’t records until they are finished. And I finished this one. And it is good. And I think you'll agree.

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