I will be releasing all the music I have created in my dismal life slowly over the coming weeks, exclusively on bandcamp, in order to clear out the archives and turn the material over to the world. Most of it is not pretty or even good by most measures, but every single song has had a part in my growth as a human being and for that alone I feel they deserve at least the opportunity to be heard and dissected.

This was the first material that this band ever released. Prior to this EP, all of these songs were just things I'd write down and record and occasionally share with kurt. I'd create mock album art and jewel cases and it was largely playing pretend.

we were sitting around talking about the music, i was wearing a t shirt that read 'this is only a test' with the colored bars on it. kurt pointed out it would make a good album cover. i followed up with "it would...let's make that album...we'll do it as this rough sketch of these songs, and just use the name this is only a test...maybe people won't take it so seriously". and thus we launched into what would be one of two groups of songs that kurt and i would actually record together.

i always was and still am extremely insecure about my voice, my songs, the recordings. i felt adding the qualifier that these were just demos, just home recordings, just a test would make it easier to put them out into the world.

we had a lot of fun making this EP- kurt, skot, and myself. skot had never officially been in the band, but before we began recording i kind of sprung it on him, as we'd eventually need another guitar on stage, and i saw him as maybe a pat smear kind of character. he was down to just play music and have a good time, and so you hear him here on his only recordings with the band.

with that, these songs are some of the first that were recorded with eventually playing live in mind. that mindset would kind of limit the amount of guitar parts on the next couple of years of recordings - a lead part, and a rhythm. it was very deliberate on this EP - in most tracks, during the verses i am panned hard one way, skot hard the other. when the chorus kicks in, my double blasts from the opposite side, as does skot's on the oppsite side, to flesh it out. it was an interesting attempt at creating depth and noise, but with little thought of tone or EQ or how everything would eventually sit together in a mix, it was a lot more of the "noise" part.

also seen here was my first of several attempts at a porcelina cover, made even more daunting by trying to piece it together with two other people who were far less familiar with the song's sweeping movements.

this is a sloppy ep, with cracking vocals, off-time drums, but it is a document of a young man pushing out of his box for the first time to realize what was in his head. he may not have gotten there all the way, but for the first time he saw that maybe it was possible. he would chase that electric rabbit relentlessly for the next decade.