Destination Heaven [LP], Euphoria Again & Dogwood Tales, Vinyl

When you play music, you meet a lot of people. It’s often cordial between us and the many bands we meet, mostly resulting in wholesome internet friendships but rarely going much beyond that. It’s especially rare to meet a band that you love hanging out with so much that you pick a hot August weekend to take off work, link up in the Shenandoah Valley, let loose, and make a whole record together with almost no preparation. What started off as a plan to track a split with some potential collaborative vocals and guitars solos immediately turned into an 8-piece live band learning and molding melodies and arrangements on the fly only to record them moments later, all together, all at once. It’s easy for me to cherish every moment of this record because it’s made by people I genuinely trust and respect deeply in music and in life. In spite of being from fairly different environments in Harrisonburg and Philly, we share an identity in music that creates a lot of understanding that can be hard to find in other kinds of relationships. This record is about celebrating these kinds of friendships and the songs that bring us all together. It’s about letting go of your ego just long enough that the big picture can really come through. I’m honored to have shared such a special process with some of my favorite musicians and closest friends.