Nuclear Orange Tree (2006)

This album will always be connected with Badlands, because the songs were recorded at the same time and I used to burn it onto the same disc as Badlands when I’d give it to friends. What started as a hodgepodge of carry-over tracks ended up becoming one of my favorite albums.

Two of the tracks (songs 2 and 3) were from an impromptu recording session with someone I met on MySpace, a friend of a mutual friend. I didn’t write those, but I play guitar on these versions and set my mic up and hit record. “Teal” was a song written by my friend Rigo, and this is a cover. The cheap mic I’d used for a long time stopped working and I purchased a mic that somehow worked worse, which you can also hear in the recording quality of some of these tracks.

Nevertheless, I still love this album. I re-worked “Lovebird,” adding a blues structure in the verses, and it’s one of the best songs on Starlit Parlor. I think “Lavender” is one of the best love songs I ever wrote, including a solo at the end I made up live and recorded once. And “Sunrise” is one of the best things I’ve ever done. So a lot of fond creative memories listening to this.

Listen to the full album on Bandcamp.