joel preston west

New Leaves

I haven’t done much songwriting over the past year or two but I have recently gotten hooked on it again and am slowly working on a new record with any spare hours I can find.  I am trying some new things and it’s great to be writing this one with The Tree Ring.  There’s no better way to spend time with people than to work on creative projects together and it’s especially great to be the worst musician in the mix.  I’m going to be recording some of it myself, and it’s going to be a very different process that will let me get to know the songs better before I put them to print.

A few things with a new season:

Bullet Point 1 : We’re going to take it easy on shows to make time for writing.  Everyone in the band is very full-time with other things so we’re trying to spend the little time we have together on new things.

Bullet Point 2: After a year and a half of really inspiring exchange with all sorts of people, I’ve put the Dust Jacket Project to rest.  You can read more about it there but in brief, I’m not going to be trading the record for art anymore, which brings me to my third bullet point.

Bullet Point 3: Daytrotter just launched their beautiful re-design and my session now includes the option to purchase digital downloads of Something Makes Us Move and Dust Jacket.  Way more stoked for the percentage to go to the good people in Rock Island than to Mr. iPad.

Thank you to everyone who has been coming to shows so persistently and giving us feedback on the new stuff, it goes a long way.

Bonus Bullet Point: San Diego friends, mark your calendars for April 30th.  More to come.