In The Mist (feat. Sarah Lashinsky)
Hi music listeners! I have new music for you to listen to.
Today’s 3rd and final single is a lighter song, befitting the very-marginally cooler temps we’re starting to feel here in Atlanta. Also bringing a lighter feel is the presence of a friend in this song:
In The Mist (feat. Sarah Lashinsky)
Listen: Spotify | Apple Music | YouTube
a few bits about the song
This song first came about for me by experimenting with a DIY rubber bridge. That is… taking a rubber tennis racket dampener and attaching it to a guitar. It’s perfectly fitted with six slots so I’m guessing the designer was a guitarist? Sadly… these are out of stock. I’m guessing the LA guitar techs shut him down… DIY makers, seize this opportunity!
The piano part is inspired by Pink Moon by Nick Drake. Just a single piano line that drifts in to sing a new melody and then disappear. I think it adds a real magical quality to the song. For a while, this piano part was just a sung part, as a “wordless” second melody.
Speaking of wordless… this song grew out of an exercise to try and write a conversation between two people but only include one side. Not intentionally riffing on The Last Five Years, but that musical has sat in my head for so long, can’t help but give props to it whenever its influence shows up.
In the last moments of the song, you can hear Sarah’s dog, Clover, barking. Accidentally captured during a take, but intentionally added to the fade out of the song. This track intended to be some morning light breaking through the darkness of the earlier tracks, I kind of like a friendly dog barking to contrast the more vicious “wolves in a pack” imagery from Terminus.
Revisiting Olenka
Sarah and I have been collaborating a lot outside of the streaming music world. One song that’s taken on a new life is Olenka (another song that featured the now-discontinued vibrakill, in fact). We’ve performed a few versions of this at open mics in the last year, but here’s a short take we recorded at Sarah’s house:
Olenka - Take 2.m4a
From John Greer
If you’re in Atlanta, you can also find Sarah playing keys and singing with Robin Shakedown
…and with any luck, you can find her on more future collaborations with me!
9/4 good buddy
The next time you’ll hear from me is on Friday, September 4th, for the full EP release of “In The Dark” including the final track: Wilderin / In the Depths, an ambitious 8+ minute song that bridges between the dark “Terminus” and title track, and to the morning light of “In The Mist.”
You can preorder and purchase CDs/stickers on Bandcamp
I’ll also be sharing some future plans for this newsletter post-EP-release.
John