The Chris Bathgate record that I worked on for months in early 2021 is finally out in the world! I mixed and co-produced it.

The entire record has no guitar, and is based instead around a 19th-century pump organ that resides in a studio in Oakland, California. The organ is tuned about half a semitone down from normal modern pitches, so all the other instruments had to be tuned to the organ — in the case of the piano, this involved using varispeed on the multitrack tape deck to which the album was recorded, to slow the playback down slightly, thereby lowering the pitch to the tuning of the piano.

These variables combine to give the album a unique, unusual, and meditative feel. Here’s the Bandcamp link, for free listening; it’s also anywhere else you might listen to music. I hope you love it.

I’m having a strange out-of-body experience that I have every so often, of being obsessed with a song that I helped make.

I’m so excited to share with you the first single from the upcoming Chris Bathgate album! This one has been a long time coming. I co-produced and mixed the album; this first single has (very cool) additional production and mixing by Daniel Zott, from the band Jr. Jr. The album will be out worldwide in May on Quite Scientific Records.

We’re making this album in order, and releasing a new song every two weeks or so. I love it and hope you do too! This material couldn’t be more fun to work with.

The album is about an intentional process of finding serenity and genuine agency in difficult times. Shannon is creating herself an iterative series of journaling prompts as a means of getting at her feelings about this, and her journaling responses to the prompts are becoming the songs! What a cool process. She’s also making the prompts available to others so that they can take the journey with her as they see fit. (One person in Ireland is making their own modern classical / ambient music album based on the prompts; how awesome is that?)

So here’s some unusual news … we have a song that’s been climbing the charts at a Triple-A radio station in Oregon! KBGE-FM 94.9 The Bridge added “Breaking Ground” from Shannon’s new album 2020101 a few weeks ago … and, as of yesterday, it’s #3 in their top 5 most requested songs. This is so surreal. We made this song in our house!

We’ve been streaming the station some this week while we do computer work, because it’s an excellent station, and we’ve heard it a bunch. It’s always shocking and extremely exciting. And we’re always the only non-famous artist; it’s never in, like, a local show or something like that. The last time we heard them play it, we were slotted between Adele and Pixies. It’s humbling and thrilling all at once.