Although HERO CITY was my first formal attempt at making music in a solo capacity, WHEN THERE WAS SOMETHING WRONG WITH YOU was my first official release in any kind of real way as far as actual studio work and legitimate distribution and paid pr and follow up touring are concerned. All of it was self-funded, of course. Some people bought cars and saved up for apartments with jobs in their twenties...I made budgets for releases and used them up while paying off school loans too somehow.

It made sense to "sell" it as a collection of stuff that was made over a period of time. I was probably seeing more of myself as a "band" type of person than a solo artist, so this felt like all-the-collected-stuff-from-a-window-of-time type of affair. And the sessions were all over the place anyway, so it made sense aesthetically and thematically and chronologically, in a way, as well.

I'm going to say I met Philip A. Jimenez many years ago when Long Island original bands were performing backyard house concerts and playing in and around Hofstra and Stonybrook (when not in the Lower East Side or some Northeast college mini-tour) and his band (Jordan River, I think?) and mine were on similar bills. I also knew Mike McCabe (what a beauty he is) from Hofstra undergraduate days, and he was in Wheatus with him. And Dave (Akiva) and I were playing together a bunch around then too and he (re)introduced us because Phil made his stuff happen too. Did I meet Dave through Phil or Phil through Dave? It's all a bit hazy, but what ended up happening is I spent a long time recording this large set of tunes at Phil's house that later became the bones for this album. Those nights felt very natural and honest and free with Phil, who is a master and making the mood and centering the voices and energies of those with whom he works. Gordo Studios (now Milk House) had all the necessary components to legitimize the urge to make something professional out of the solo meandering spirit that enveloped me at the time. It was enough to mire in the lo-fi of the past for a good while, but what could a better sounding future hold for this artist? What could a shot in that beautiful dark offer?

I also was tracking with the genius guitarist/engineer/producer/and now restauranteur Brian Blackburn. We also knew each other from way back when. He was in Outerbridge Crossing, a strange psychedelic rock band from out east LI (remember the Chandler Estate near Stonybrook?) that disassembled but set the stage for his own excursions into the music world. I think I tracked some of these tunes a bit at Lizard Juice in King's Park and then again at Brian's place when he and Pam moved to LA. I loved working with Brian so much. His energy is so dialed into opening the thing you're working on so much. Loves the greats but respects the outsiders too. I have much admiration for his person too. Brian and I found each other in that Track 1AB/Long Island alt-rocker scene Phil was in too but in a different way. Phil had graduated out of it with Wheatus because they got big...really big. So did Brian with his time as studio engineer at a relatively clandestine operation in Hollywood, but that's another story. They were different cohorts, and Brian's was founded in some mad friendship and hangs and delving deep in a social way as well as the making of the music.

Speaking of this, nothing would have happened without my dearest of dears, Mike Bloom. He was at the heart of all this in the first place...the impetus for making something alone or paired or in this self-directed but collaborative and refined way. I don't know if I tracked first with Mikey and brought those tracks to Phil or the other way around (the bulk was tracked with Phil for sure), but I do know the inspiration was in and with and because of Mike, who was already making the scene with Rilo Kiley and that cohort out west. He is the magician's magician if we see magic as just the most amount of attention one can focus on something one loves in order to make it happen in a very specific and special way. What he does with music is genius. We made stuff together when we were kids that helped us make meaning of the world around us. I'll never forget that. He's my brother.

I met a lot of people while making this album, some of whom I'll mention in the notes to the songs themselves, and in many ways, I finally learned how to make music for myself here. And show it to others so that we can play together without too much torture or unwrapping. Fittingly, it's completely uncategorizable but feels like a close friend admitting something in your ear at least a few times in its journey. It says things like, "this world feels hard" at some moments and then "I'm here for you, always" at others. Things like "remember that time?" and "even though it was so long ago, it still feels..." So close. Confusing. Imperfect. And true. The influences are tattooed on the sleeve.

I've come to understand WHEN THERE WAS SOMETHING WRONG WITH YOU is not only about identifying that period in one's life when, indeed, our dysfunction and enchantment with illusion were palpable (as the title suggests), but it is also about giving it some space to continue to live and dream and inform the present work we do. We are always inextricably tied to our pasts even as we maneuver through new sirens of the present and whatever else the future musters up for us. If we don't honor all that we were, how will we learn from it?