Kelly, Kevin, and I want to thank everyone who contributed to 20 Minute Loop’s successful funding campaign. We are now able to afford mastering, duplication, and other costs for the upcoming album, and, of course, everyone who contributed will have their respective tier rewards by late Autumn. It will take this long because we were only able to proceed with production upon receipt of the funds from our Indiegogo campaign, after which the turnaround for many of the production stages requires some time.
This project is, in part, a retrospective across fifteen years and four albums. Most of the songs have been released already on other albums in other recorded forms, but this was an opportunity to rework the material in a significantly different way. Originally, I thought we were just going to record the songs the way we performed them one night in Port Costa—just Kelly, Kevin, and me, no drums, bass, etc.—in order to get live performances on tape. Jim Greer encouraged this, generously offering us studio and engineer time where he works in Berkeley. But, as these things tend to do, the project began to grow with the inclusion of other vocals, a trumpet, accordion, glass harp, etc. The basic tracks are indeed live, but the additional elements, performed by our incredibly gifted circle of musician friends, produced something more than just an “unplugged” recording.
As creative types tend to do, I vacillate wildly in my feelings toward the 20 Minute Loop material. This is probably just a mechanism that encourages us to move forward and try different things, which I am ready to do. But I am thankful for all of the supporters who crowd-funded this last chin-scratching glance at a big chunk of our lives. It helps render the question “What the fuck was that all about?” from a despairing lament to a more genial, nonplussed reflection. When the album is ready for release in November, we will play a show to mark the occasion (more details on that later), and then, at last, I can pursue my dream of mobile home park management. I already have a roll of AstroTurffor the putting green in front of the office.
Peace, love, and respect,
Gregory Giles