Hoo Hoo Yeah Yeah

ABOUT THIS RECORDING:
I came back from Iquitos, Peru at the end of 2009 with about 40 new songs which I had
written while living and studying with a shaman. My life at that time was unbelievably
far removed from anything that can be called ordinary. These songs were my only
connection to the real world. Once I was back in Canada, Ben and I began recording them.
I only gave Ben the chords and showed him the lyrics and melody. From there, we came
up with the orchestration together. Recording and mixing the album took nearly a year.

ABOUT THE SONGS:

YESTERDAY’S GONE was written on the Zipolete beach in Mexico. I was about to go
back to the mountains of Oaxaca when I picked up my guitar and came up with the
opening chords. The rest of the song came over the next hour and it was a real classic.

HOO HOO YEAH YEAH was written in the jungles of Peru. The song was a conscious
effort to focus on positivity and manifest joy. It came to me over the course of a few hours.

SO SMALL was written in the jungle on the night before HOO HOO YEAH YEAH.
It was the first time I really wrote a song using a fingerpicking technique. The song
actually started off as an upbeat rocker, but finally evolved into what it is. Some of the
harmonies on SO SMALL were inspired by the Russian music I grew up listening to.

WITH YOU was written one morning in the jungle in Peru. I sat around with my guitar
for about and hour and the song just came out. Along with multiple guitar solos from Ben,
it features a solo on the Juno 6 analog synth.

THANK YOU LITTLE FIRE was written in a teepee in the mountains of Oaxaca, siting
by a little fire. I never really took this song seriously, but a friend convinced me to put it on
the album. When we sat down to record, Ben recorded the electric guitar without ever
hearing the song or knowing the vocal melody.

DESOLATION was recorded live and in one take. Nothing was written for this song.
I just sat down at the synth and Ben improvised on his new Telecaster amp.
What resulted was perfect - the track is uncut and unedited.

ESPERANZA was one of the first songs I wrote in Peru. It was written acapella,
without a guitar. It later took me a while to figure out the chords to the melody.
The song is in three languages - English, Russian, and Spanish. The chord progression
in ESPERANZA is very unusual.

DIMENSION DREAM was written in the jungles of Peru over a period of several
days. It was meant to be quite psychedelic and Ben’s orchestration definitely achieved
that goal, completely transforming my original accoustic recording. The recording of
Dimension Dream only took us one day. The mixing took a lot longer.

BY THE LIGHT OF THE MOON was the last song I wrote for this album. It was
written in 2010 in Canada and is a retrospective of my psychedelic experiences.

PRETTY MUSIC was written at a shaman’s house in Peru. I was just playing guitar to
pass the time, and the whole song came in a matter of an hour or so. The chord
structure was very unique and the fingerpicking pattern came from a modification
of the opening notes of “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” by The Beatles.

I REMEMBER was written after a phonecall from my girlfriend. It has very interesting
chords. The chorus for the song was written later, while I was fasting in the jungle.

NOT THE SAME was written on the same day as SO SMALL .

FALL ASLEEP was an improvisation on the piano, with some Tibetan singing bowls.