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FULL ALBUMS
THE AUTUMN SKYLIGHT -
SOMEDAY WE'LL MEET SOMEWHERE (2006)
[2006] - all instruments by me
copyright
©2006. all rights reserved.
my thoughts
and notes on the CD:
Most of the album is largely inspired by a sweet, beautiful woman
who passed away named Katie Knudson. Details below, but first,
a little background of how the Autumn Skylight started:
In 2003, I wrote the first three songs for this album, "Kite",
"Drowning" and "Hovering Closely" in one weekend.
They were all inspired by my first true love, Megan. She thought
the songs were repetitive. She didn't understand what I was trying
to do with the music... I wanted to write layered, evolving instrumental
folk textures with a taste of ambient... the same kind of stuff
you hear in the background of a heartfelt movie or well-written
television show. I always loved music for television shows, especially
ones that were written by W.G. Snuffy Walden (My So-Called Life,
The Wonder Years, Felicity, etc.) and Adam Fields (Dawson's Creek).
I also got into a lot of really pretty instrumental indie music
such as Tristeza, Mogwai, The Album Leaf, and others, at the time.
So going with all that inspiration, I wrote those three songs. A
fourth followed, entitled "Snow Angels", which was about
how Megan and I were going to move to PA and it would be great to
finally play in the snow after collectively missing it for more
than 15 years.
The project sat for a while as I focused my attention on writing music for Beauty's Confusion. Megan dumped me in September 2004 for another guy. A few weeks later I moved to PA. I couldn't eat for weeks and lost thirty pounds. Those months that followed were some of the worst of my life. I wrote a few new songs in summer 2005, including "Gone" and "The Conversational Connection" (the former was about Megan shutting me out of her life completely, and the latter was inspired by the girl in the photo below). In 2006, I finished the record, largely due to the fact I found out that same girl I wrote "The Conversational Connection" about, had been murdered.
In
fall of 2006, I searched Myspace for this girl I had always had
a crush on but never really said anything to: Katie Knudson.
She used to come into the record store I worked at with her two
brothers and she was so kind to me, and shy, and we'd talk a little
about good music. I knew her name because our computer system kept
track of the used CDs the customers would buy, by their full names.
I always wanted to say something to Katie but at the time, I was
in love with Megan and I would never do anything to stray from her,
even though I felt Katie and I had a strong connection.
I hadn't seen Katie at the store for several months before I moved
to PA, and didn't know that the last time I would see her (looking
beautiful in a purple shirt and long, flowing blonde hair) would
be the last time I would see her, ever.
When I found Katie's profile on Myspace, I saw that her profile
had been accessed/logged into recently, but when I looked at all
the comments her friends left her, they were all sad and odes to
her and saying that they all missed her deeply. I didn't put two
and two together right away, and then it hit me that she had been
murdered in February of 2006.
She had been dating a guy for a long time who was a scumbag drug dealer. The following is according to the news I've read about the horrible incident.
One night, around 1am, Katie and her boyfriend were driving somewhere in her car, and a car began chasing them and shooting at the car. Eventually her car had crashed on the side of the road. From what I've read, Katie was driving, and the boyfriend was in the passenger seat. The guys who were chasing them got out of their car shortly after Katie crashed, and shot Katie point blank in the face with a semi-automatic pistol. Her boyfriend Paul was shot at, and hit, but he wound up surviving somehow (probably getting out of the car immediately), and when the police arrived after his 911 phone call, he was found laying in a field near the car, with Katie dead at the wheel.
Katie had never been involved in her boyfriend's drug deals and didn't really even know any of that stuff was going on, or didn't want to believe it. So they shot her, probably thinking she had something to do with whatever the boyfriend did wrong, because they were in the car together.
What makes me ill is that the boyfriend survived the whole thing. And she didn't.
So anyway, long story short.... I was deeply, deeply affected by her death, and wrote two songs immediately, fully inspired by and written for her, called "Every Hair On Her Beautiful Head" and "Timid Smile." After that, the songs just kept coming, and I finished the record a few short weeks later.
The liner notes include a dedication to her, and a beautiful photo that she had taken of herself before that night, looking off-camera to the side.
I hope that wherever Katie is, she can hear these songs and loves them. I regret not saying anything to her back in Florida about my feelings for her. Maybe if I told her how much I liked her, maybe she would be alive today. Who knows. The littlest things in life can have a huge impact. The whole Butterfly Effect thing.
I miss you, Katie Knudson. I hope you love the music and I'm sure we'll meet again someday.
And to the person reading this site, I hope you like the music, too. I am really proud of this record and it makes me space out and reflect on a lot of great things in my life... people have told me the music makes them visualize movie scenes and feel things they've never felt before. That's a great compliment... I hope the music continues to do that.