In a world moving at full-digital-speed-ahead, the intention for this record was crystal clear: to create music that can accompany someone during a ‘social media detox.’ And, in order to best reflect such an intention, that music was to be created whilst the musicians – ourselves – were undergoing a seven-day social media detox.
It wasn’t known exactly what lessons would be learned, or what kind of music would emerge…
But over only seven days, a plethora of experiences emerged to inform us musicians during the creative process: observations of a dichotomy between loneliness and peace-of-mind, the recognition of differences between authentic communication and staged conversation, and the discovery of opportunities to cultivate personal discipline and renewed relationships with social media, to name a few.
And what was particularly fascinating for the three multi-instrumentalists (Johnny Butler, woodwinds; E Scott Lindner, guitar/bass/engineering; and myself, Adam Ahuja, keyboards/drums), was that musical communication itself became an ultimate prescription for human connection. The music was conversationally-driven, mainly improvisational, dynamically sensitive, and more often than not, spacious and ambient. The album is diverse in instrumentation, yet consistent in its feeling. The music was created over a two-day span. It was a pure collaboration.
When we’re in the thick of it, it can be hard to detect how deeply modern technology might induce our behavior and impact the experiences of our lives. While the purpose of the record wasn’t to dispel social media altogether, it was to help us reclaim, as musicians and as people, the range of ways in which we can choose to socialize in our lives. We hope that it may also help to inspire listeners as such.
If you’d like, we invite you to unplug for a few days, and experience the music with us. Or otherwise, please feel free to enjoy the music as is, for what it is.
Happy listening.