Hey Exit – Lens EP

The Lens EP (and its second installment, Cutting Pitch) was conceived around a favorite writing exercise: Come up with 30 ideas (that don’t suck) in a single session. It has a relatively summery, upbeat sound, and it’s probably the only work of mine where you can hear any kind of jazz influence (a tradition that’s deeply important to me as a listener and practitioner of spiritual music, but from which I maintain a respectful distance in my own work).

I wanted to make music that would imply, rather than assert. My goal was to conceive of 30 ideas and give them each proper, respectful treatment: Form each idea fully, title them meaningfully, record good takes, mix and master the release as I would any other. Each track was to feel like looking through a keyhole into the world of a song you couldn’t hear.

As it happens, I never did elaborate on any of these tracks, preferring to think of the collection as a whole piece – finished, in a way. There’s a quote from that page out of Thelonious Monk’s notebook that says, "Don't play everything (or every time); let some things go by. Some music just imagined. What you don't play can be more important than what you do." Cool.