Dear Maybell began when I actually did sing to cattle out on a family farm, but as with all my other songs it ended up pulling from a lot of places to become a story that felt worth telling. I chose it as the first single of the album because it introduces the album's key themes, first of which is love. In Dear Maybell, the protagonist is clearly still enchanted by somebody even as he fights his own desire to admit it. The next songs will approach the theme in a similar way, as a collective attempt to represent the many sides and dimensions of the rich and wild experience that love is. It can hurt. It can also be absolutely everything. It can be rockin', it can be tender. It can be romantic or plutonic. It can be loss, it can be lust. It can be lonely, smothering or just right. It can be all of that and it can twist and turn and rise and fall, giving and destroying in one look. These "love songs" are what Cathedral will be built around, and was the central creative challenge of the album.
Instrumentally, Dear Maybell introduces the sonic version of that story. You will hear organs that sound like they might be coming from the church basement across the street. You will hear vocal harmonies that sound a bit like choirs. You will hear effects and styles that try to lift, often spiraling and swirling in a non-linear way. That part was intentional. Pulling from my own love of gospel music and personal sense of faith, you will hear many references to the divinity of love, from the songs, to the art to the album title itself. Mind you, this is not an endorsement of a specific religion. But it is certainly a nod upward.
What was not intentional, however, was everything else. This whole album is just a human thing, with each string plucked from a real pick, each drum smacked by a lunging arm, each key pressed by a flying finger. It was sweat, laughter and tears (and, well ok, a bit of editing). But in a world of computer programmed tracks and beats, this one tried to be the opposite. Can you feel it? Stuff happens in that process, stuff you don't intend. I have no illusion of complete control here. I have never truly understood what this is or why I'm doing it, but have grown to believe that the best way to write a song or even make music is to get out of the way and just let it happen.
That may be the best way to listen to one, too. Well, that and with good headphones or speakers.
Thanks for listening.
Performed by: Bryan Daisley (vocal, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, organ, percussion), Sage Goewey (drums), Kelly Smith (bass), Jack Parker (electric guitar lead and awesome solo) and Alyssa Stock (all four harmony vocals!).
Co-produced with Jack Parker
Mixed by yours truly
Mastered by Nathan James Allen
Cover art by Sabel Roizen
-Bryan