this is what two years of only drinking waffle house chocolate milk and smoking cigars all day will result in.

that result being mother goose's debut LP; the first "proper album" i've made for the project. "proper" might not be the best way to describe any of the music on this thing, but i would consider it a cohesive record, if that's really what makes a collection of songs into an album. while there's definitely some sort of arc in each of the previously released mother goose EPs/comps, this record feels way more fleshed out in terms of the flow and scale of everything. there's some actual conceptual themes and shit on this one, guys. i would not call this a "concept album" per se, but many of the lyrics throughout the record are about trying to let go of control and training your mind to allow that to happen, which is kind of ironic considering that the music here is pretty rigidly composed. i thought about the discrepancy between what the lyrics were saying and what the music was doing while recording vocals for the album, probably because i was getting more into improvised music around that time. in a way, the lyrics are about where i want to take my music with mother goose after this record.

another big thing that sets this album apart from the rest of the discography is how it sounds. i think this is pretty definitively the best sounding mother goose release so far, and a lot (if not all) of that has to do with mike poole. mike helped me mix this thing and brought everything up to a level of quality that i had always dreamed about achieving for a project such as this one that was recorded primarily in bedrooms. in the 90s, mike worked with one of my favorite nashville bands ever, clockhammer. if you've never heard of clockhammer and you're into my music (first of all, thanks. second of all, you're weird. third of all...) you should give them a listen. he's also continued to work with some very interesting people throughout the years; a whole lot of them are listed on this website - www.mikepoolerecording.com . it was very cool to work with mike and imagine myself - whether true or not - in the lineage of very cool people he's worked with over the years. it's insane to think about how jank the recording process for this thing was and how good it ended up sounding due to mike's guidance. i've learned so much from him and i could gush about him forever. dude is so great at what he does and is also a super chill guy. SHOUT OUT MIKE POOLE!!!!

a funny thing about taking two years to put together an album is that by the time you're finished with it, your music taste has transformed into something totally different from what it was when you were writing the music. maybe that's not a universal experience, but it rings true to myself (and i heard björk talking about that in an interview one time). while i'm really happy with how this album turned out, i'm already rearin' to get going on the next one, which could end up very different from these songs. when i was writing the album, i was more into "epic" song structures - slow builds and whatnot. these days i tend towards more extreme, abstract, and generally unhinged music which isn't fully absent from this album, but i want to explore these aspects of music in more depth in future releases. i don't want to put my music in a box tho, so we'll see how things materialize.

anyways, that was a whole blurb. congrats for reading all of those words up there. unfortunately there is no reward for doing that. im gonna go to waffle house and try and smoke a cigar inside again. they've gotta let me do it one of these days.

Music and Lyrics: Chedda Cheeze
Guitars: Chedda Cheeze
Bass: Chedda Cheeze
Vocals: Chedda Cheeze
MIDI Programming: Chedda Cheeze
Violin on tracks 1&4: Lila Carleton
Drums: Chedda Cheeze
Noise: Chedda Cheeze

Narration on track 6: Gregg Margarite's reading of Philip K. Dick's "Piper in the Woods" (courtesy of LibriVox.org )

Recorded by: Chedda Cheeze
Mixing: Mike Poole & Cheeda Cheeze
Mastering: Mike Poole

Cover Artwork: Lila Carleton
Cover Design: Lila Carleton & Chedda Cheeze


Special thanks to:

Elias Sisneros for allowing me to use your mixer for no input purposes

Sasha Zubieta for letting me record with your violin bow

Morgan Luker, Bora Yoon (borayoon.com), Mark Burford, Shohei Kobayashi, Jim Kahan, Kirsten Volness (kirstenvolness.com) & Nicholas Emerson for encouraging and allowing me to take this music farther than I thought was possible in addition helping me become a more thoughtful and humble person

The Reed College Performing Arts Resource Center for providing me with both a space to record, as well as gear with which to undertake said recording

More thanks to the following companies responsible for hard/software that was used to create this album, Schecter Guitar Research, R. W. Jameson Guitar Company, Ernie Ball Incorporated, Floyd Rose, BOSS Pedals, Behringer, Slingerland Drum Company, Sabian Cymbals, Remo Incorporated, Vic Firth Company, Apple Inc., Logic Pro, Pro Tools, Avid Technology, Soundtoys, Aberrant DSP, Waves Audio Ltd., M-Audio, Focusrite PLC, Presonus Audio Electronics, Inc., Beyerdynamic GmbH & Co. KG, Shure Incorportated, and AKG Acoustics

Extra super duper duper special thanks to all of my friends and family members who have in each in some way or another helped to make me the person I am today and by extension this record. this is your fault too!!!

Also thanks to marijuana assisting in some of the creative processes, especially lyrical ones

Originally released September 22, 2023