Hi friends! We have officially reached the end of the second month, and that's crazy to me. I never thought that I'd be able to make this much so quickly and (fairly) consistently. This week's song is something dear to my heart: "Let's Go to Haiti" by an amazing band called The Exit.

The Exit were around for a handful of years in the early aughts, and I was introduced to them by my pal and music collaborator, Mike Drew, while we were still in High School. Their first record, 'New Beat' was like a brattier, power pop, punk version of The Police, and I fell in love. Catchy songs, delivered by a trio of solid players, and filtered through the powerful crooning of Jeff DaRosa, were just part of the appeal, as they were a killer live band as well. Anyone I know, who caught them in some way back then, are astounded that they didn't take over the world. After the release of their second record, 'Home For an Island', which this song is on, DaRosa left the band, and they fell apart soon after. Each member went on to do some wild stuff: DaRosa played in Straylight Run for a hot minute, alongside his wife Michelle, and then joined Dropkick Murphys, where he's been since. Drummer Gunnar Olsen, who is a damn beast, has been in a number of cool bands, and done session work for Bruce Springsteen, Miley Cyrus, and a ton of others, and Ben Brewer (actual last name, Bronfman) works for a giant company that helps reduce CO2 in the atmosphere.

I definitely wanted to include one of their songs into the list, and this one is such a quick and killer tune. It's so intense and does a lot in a small package. I was lucky enough to have Matt Balog join me for a second time to do the bass on this one, and his performance was done so well that it allowed me to tinker a little with the tone afterwards. This also marks the first time in a decade that Mike and I have made anything together that would be released to the world. (We did a couple jams with Kevin from Kick Over The Traces about 4 years ago, but those are locked up tight for now) It was wild to be in the engineer's seat while working together, but it felt so familiar to make something as a team. He came in and slayed these parts really quickly, while also being really open to instruction and collaboration. It definitely won't be the last time we do this.

Since this song is pretty straightforward, I didn't need to do much to make it come together, but there were some definite highlights for me.

1. As mentioned before, Gunnar Olsen is a BEAST, and this song was quite intimidating to play, especially because I didn't want to go nuts and edit it like crazy, thus losing the feel. I do think I did a pretty darn good job, and got that tambourine juuuuuuuust right. (Also, had to keep the "GUNNNAAARRR!" in the middle of the song, because it sounded empty without it, so let's call that a nice little nod).
2. I toyed around with automation a little more this time as well, especially to accent a couple transitions. This is definitely becoming more reflexive and natural for me.
3. While absolutely HATING the recording of my vocals, this song was done in almost 1 take. I sang it maybe 3 times just to make sure I got everything I needed, but I pretty much used the first take, which was me singing the whole way through. That has never happened for me before.

This marks the last week in August, and thus the last week to donate to the Trevor Project. We saw some additional donations this month from last month, which makes me really happy, but I'd love to squeeze a few more dollars in before next week, so please donate if you can. This has been really encouraging, not only for me, but for our music community, that even when we're suffering, we're still willing to come together to help those in need. I have some real doozies coming up in September, and the charity will be something that we desperately need in the lead up to this year's election. Can't wait to get this stuff out to you!

Thank you all so much for your continued kindness.

Cheers!