What started out as an unknown, unmemorable day in late Autumn of 2022, turned into the beginning of a long journey of which this EP is a memory of sorts…On that day I discovered an album called "Heartfall" by Miles Hewitt and played it on my hour-long commute to my then landscaping job. The first note of Heartfall to the last note felt like a revelation that I hadn't experienced since first encountering Mutual Benefit's "Love's Crushing Diamond" some nine years prior. Earlier in 2022, around February, I had met my now dear friend and musician Akshay Vernekar, and I had already brought him two early versions of songs that I had begun working on, which eventually became “Time” and “Balancing Act” with his help.

At the beginning of 2023, it came to my attention that Miles offered production and recording services to other artists at a very generous rate. I immediately messaged him and explained my interest in working together - given how important "Heartfall" had become to me in the preceding months, I sensed that Miles would intuitively understand and be able to help me breathe my songs to life.

However, given that I live in Vancouver and Miles lives in Brooklyn, it was going to take considerable effort to prepare and traverse such a distance. So, over the course of what remained of 2023, Miles and I kept up a sporadic dialogue, with me sending demos and trying to narrow down the selection of songs for our recording session and with Miles planning and organizing the logistics of where, when, how, and who. Eventually we landed on a week at the end of March in 2024 with Miles’ close friend, collaborator, and artist Karl Helander (Karlo Reuby, Cousin Moon) coming on board to produce, play drums & synths & sing, and he also provided a space to record at his home-studio to save us from forking out more money on renting out Grammy Guaranteed or some other haunt!

In New York the three of us basically recorded one song per day, with Miles and Karl fleshing out my barebones guitar and vocal takes with an array of bass, guitar, synth, drums, vocals, etc. On Day 1 we recorded Time and by the end of that day I knew that I was in good hands. Miles and Karl had a strong foundation of friendship and had been in bands and played music together on and off for many years, and so their chemistry and familiarity made for an easy, fluid, and productive process.

As soon as I arrived home, I emailed Jake Falby to ask if he would consider recording violin for any of the songs. I’ve known of Jake since hearing Love’s Crushing Diamond by Mutual Benefit, but he has played with many artists who are among my favorites (There are no thieves in this town, Julie Byrne, & many more), so it was a long-standing dream to work with him. After exchanging emails and having a phone call, it was settled! To have Jake’s extremely beautiful, delicate, and otherworldly-atmosphere-inducing string compositions on Time and Undone is totally surreal in the same way that almost every step of this recording process has felt.
credits
released February 14, 2025

Tracks 1 & 2 were co-written with Akshay Vernekar
Track 3 written by Levi Taschuk

Levi Taschuk: guitars, vocals, synth
Miles Hewitt: production, bass, guitars, synth, backing vocals
Karl Helander: production, drums, synth, backing vocals
Jake Falby: violin

Mixed by Germaine Dunes
Mastered by Andy Cass at Sleeper Cave
Artwork by Katie Griesar

Recorded in 4 days at Karl's place in Brooklyn, NY ~ March 2024