My new album, One Hundredfold Now in This Age, is finally out in the world. I say “finally” because I started working on the music shortly after the release of Recurring Dream in 2022. The lyrics began to find focus around the end of 2023, which will come across to anyone listening even a little closely. I’m amazed by and envious of artists who work quickly, and I aspire to their presence of thought. As of this writing, I’m simply not that kind of artist, and I’m at peace with that.

A few kind reviews have been written, and the estimable music blogger Glenn Griffith of A Pessimist is Never Disappointed favorably compared the album to John Cale’s Paris 1919. I fucking love that album so of course I’m thrilled that my own music brought it to mind, but it’s an apt comparison beyond just the aesthetic choices; it also touches on some of the more broad decisions that lead me to make this kind of record. Hundredfold works musically and lyrically within the same artistic guideposts that I set with Recurring Dream: it’s ambitious in scale, eclectic and genre-agnostic, a real kitchen-sink record. Basically, I wanted to prove to myself that RD wasn’t a fluke, and that I could crank albums like this out anytime I please. I think I accomplished that goal, if you consider releasing an album every three years as “cranking it out.” But like Cale’s legendary run of albums in the early 70s (Vintage Violence, Paris 1919, Fear), it’s a set of records that are undeniably song-based but indulging whatever kind of eccentric whim the Welshman considered worthy pursuing.

The record is available “everywhere” except for Spotify. Undoubtedly many people reading this will be aware of the recent movement for artists to remove their music from Spotify, a movement arguably launched by the superheroes in the band Deerhoof. Aside from the fact that Spotify’s royalty structure has one of the worst payouts for artists among the streaming platforms, their chief operating officer Daniel Ek has recently aligned himself with some kind of depraved AI-driven weapons company, thereby managing to somehow turn art into murder. A very disturbing kind of alchemy that could only happen under late capitalism. So I’m proud to count myself among the ranks of artists who are declining to involve themselves in this bloody mess (although I never made much money from streaming to begin with and I don’t blame any artist who cannot, for any reason, extract themselves from Spotify’s grasp at this moment). Of course I know that my part of the boycott is a small one, but I’m hoping to eventually be part of a mass movement to make Spotify toxic, or, as my friend Max Alper put it, “make Spotify as irrelevant as Facebook” (i.e. an outmoded, uncool dinosaur on its way out). To the question “Aren’t Apple Music and YouTube Music and the rest just as enmeshed in the charnel house of global capitalism?” Yes, of course! As I see it, this is Phase One of The Fight Against Streaming. These companies are not built to last, and no one can say what will take the place of streaming. We want to live in a world where music is accessible for everyone AND artists can get paid a fair rate. Remember: anyone who tells you “there isn’t enough to go around” is lying. Let’s see what kind of power we can wield in the name of ethical consumption/production and take it from there.

The process of releasing an album is emotionally akin to the end of Hellraiser – you feel like you’re being pulled in a dozen different directions and you wind up just kind of laughingly saying “Jesus wept.” There’s a lot of emphasis on the release but I know this music will continue to travel to unexpected places. I owe a lot to the many collaborators who contributed performances, artwork, design, or production help to Hundredfold. I also owe a debt of thanks to Galen Richmond of the label Repeating Cloud for taking a chance with me; do us both a favor and if you haven’t already, go ahead and buy one of the copies of the album he pressed up.

I have a new band that is playing this music live. It features the estimable Sam Morrison on double keys, Adelyn Strei on woodwinds, and Aaron Edgcomb on drums. We want to play shows so please book us.

I’m thinking about what’s next. Now that I’ve proved to myself that I can work in this mode at will, I want to go somewhere else. The world is so ever-changing and I am of the world.