About the ep Project:
Degrees of separation
It all started when...
I felt like an alien, and I realized I wasn't the only one. In the context of relationships in the modern age, despite our "hyper connectivity", many people also seem to be experiencing a growing sense of alienation.
Degrees of Separation aims to explore different ways that we alienate ourselves or feel alienated - distanced from others, from ourselves, or from the world around us. Sometimes it is done to us; sometimes we are the doers. We are resistant to being vulnerable with others. We don't let ourselves be loved. We are hurt from opening up to people who then cut themselves off completely with no warning.
Some of these are age-old human issues, and some of them are unique to this period in time. Currently we're seeing phenomena like ghosting, digital narcissism, and the illusion of curating our lives. How are we affected by these things and how do they contribute to a feeling of alienation in both directions - from self to others and vice versa?
In wanting to capture the spirit of the music that I've been playing at shows differently than we typically find with the traditional method of studio recording, I began to think of ways we could set up the recording and position ourselves to do so - both the spirit of live music in general and also the spirit of the theme of the album.
Thus, the Project Degrees of Separation was born. Degrees of Separation consists of two contrasting audio-visual versions of a 5 song EP. One version takes place out in the middle of the woods, with no one around - just a camera and the band.
The other version is the opposite - people getting together on a rooftop in the middle of New York City to enjoy music together.
We've done this in two different filming styles. In the woods, it was a traditional external camera crew. On the roof, the video was crowd-sourced. Everyone in the audience took a video from their phone of a different section of the EP, and the end visual product will be constructed from everyone's participation.
We're asking questions: how different do the songs feel playing amongst friends in NYC versus in isolation? Even in isolation, do our relationships to each other as musicians and collaborators create another dynamic?
If there is a difference, is it perceptible in the video? How are the songs and the energy shaped by the non-music environmental factors and non-musician participants?
EP Audio Release: March 27, 2017
Video Release #1: May 2017
