The Drums

This week we are celebrating 10 years of the misunderstood, but deeply loved weirdo of an album: Encyclopedia. I offer you Blue Sky Boy, a song that is left over from that strange period of my life. It was finished sometime between the wrapping up of Encyclopedia and before I started work on Abysmal Thoughts, but due to the upfront synthesizer placement, it felt like it leaned more Encyclopedia. From the moment we started making music as The Drums we were dubbed surf rock by many a fan and critic. For our third album, we wanted to pull away from that and pull towards our first love : synthesizer music, which is what initially bonded Jacob and I when we met at a sad little summer camp as preteens. Up until The Drums all we had ever made was electronic music so this was our homecoming album. and of course, it was our least appreciated, our most overlooked, the least seen- which is exactly how we both felt as preteens - when we were first falling in love with making synthesizer music while the rest of the world was going gaga over Nirvana. It all makes so much sense to me. It had to be this way. This was also my last album with Jacob and as I write this, I feel a lump form in my throat. Jacob is someone that I deeply loved and deeply needed, and who I looked to as a guide, both musically and otherwise. when I turn to guitars to start The Drums, he stayed with his synthesizers mostly. He was beautifully stubborn that way. Maybe he carried a deeper knowing about what would make him the most happy. Maybe we both subconsciously knew that he would be leaving soon and so instinctively we made space for him to go wild on his giant modulars for this album. (Listen to Wild Geese , A Jacob Graham masterpiece). I’ll always feel love for him and I’ll always miss him and the love and enthusiasm we shared. I’ve never found a friend to replace Jacob and I’ve never tried. I just let that whole sit there empty because he was absolutely singular. The lyrics on Blue Sky Boy became my own private pep rally to myself at a time when my musical ride or die had just said goodbye. I hope you enjoy it. love, Jonny (link in bio)

happy 15 years to my firstborn - recorded on a dirty carpet using found and sometimes broken equipment, zero guitar amps ( too poor ), and the same stolen microphone for every other sound and vocal. I never once properly tuned the guitar the entire time of recording- i felt like the songs were coming way too fast for that - for bass gtr sounds, i blended gtr and synth bass to equal levels. I feel so far away from these songs and from that boy… and still there is love. which track is your go to? I want to hear from you, Jonny