Hi friends, welcome to (a slightly delayed) week 11, where I'm covering one of my favorite tunes: "Undercover" by my fellow New Jersey native, Pete Yorn.

I remember clearly finding out about Pete Yorn shortly after his first album musicforthemorningafter came out. If memory serves, he was featured on MTV News' You Hear it First segment, and he was heralded as the "alternative Springsteen". Considering I wouldn't come to appreciate The Boss for another 5 years or so, teenage me was happy to have his own hometown singer/songwriter hero. For almost 20 years, he's continually put out good music and shown that you can do a lot by yourself, as he plays most of the instruments on his records. This song is off of his 2006 record Nightcrawler, which had a few different producers and guest musicians, making a diverse and interesting collection of songs. This one always stood out; it hit all of my buttons.

My fellow PY fan, and old pal Mike Drew is back on guitars for this one. We had fun messing around with different mixtures of guitars, amps and pedals, as well as finding the little layers to make the song full. There's so much hidden stuff in here, that we were sure we'd never find it all, but I think we did a pretty good job. This was also the first time I got to use my new AKG C414 condenser mic. Having a really nice condenser like that is a bit of a step for me, as I never thought I'd really care this much about recording equipment, but there's a reason why it's such an industry standard. Acoustic and electric guitars gain definition, and vocals come out crisp. I used it all over this track and I'm looking forward to learning how to use it more and more effectively.

Probably the most difficult part of this entire song (aside from the vocals. Mr. Yorn and I have very different voices) was the little programmy beat in the first portion of the song. I know almost nothing when it comes to programming, which I do hope to change in the future, so I took some hi-hat hits I did during the drum tracking, and processed the hell out of them. I believe there's distortion, flanger, filter and EQ all on that part, as well as a bit crusher to make it super granular. Hopefully it elicits the same effect, I can't even tell after listening to it so many times.

Now, for the elephant in the room (at least to me), this is a week late. I set out to never fall short in this project; to always meet my deadline and improve, even a little. I could point to a dozen different reasons why the last few weeks have been especially draining, between work, our country, my mental and physical health, but regardless, I fell short, and I'm sorry for that. To be honest, I'm struggling with some of this creative work and I feel a bit lost sometimes, like I'm just chasing my own tail for days on end. But with all that said, I'm hoping that the next few weeks see a bit more of me returning to more healthy habits and a better frame of mind. This is supposed to be the release, and when I let too much uncontrollable nonsense clutter up my life, music suffers.

As with everything I'm putting up this month, all proceeds are going to the Brennan Center, to aid in their fight to protect our democracy. As I type this, we're not even a day removed from the passing of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and already the worst elements of our country are preparing to fill her seat with someone who has none of her morals or heart, in a glaring moment of Republican hypocrisy. I encourage you, to please donate to these kinds of organizations if and when you can, and to please register to vote, and encourage others to do so as well. Our rights and well being are literally at stake, as well as humanity's survival if we allow these criminals to remain in power.

Thank you for your continued support, and be on the lookout for a little bonus song in the next few days.

Cheers!