On September 24, 2022, I walked into High/Low Recording and began work on my third album. That's the first day we hit record, but the work started years--hell, decades--before.
I wrote Orchid South's songs over the span of 15+ years. Phantom Planet's The Guest knocked me out upon its 2002 arrival; I conceived my version of "Always On My Mind" soon after. "Almost Gone" went through several iterations, beginning in 2008.
And somewhere in the mid 2010's, I wrote "Song of the Summer." My memory is that it was part of setlists while touring Kids These Days in 2016 & 2017. But memory's a funny thing.
Listeners will hear a different, extended bridge on the album version--something added in pre-production with (producer) Toby Vest & (bandmate, collaborator) Luke White. But the bones are the same.
Orchid South is set in a specific time and place. Going back there within these songs was like--and hopefully sounds like--living inside a memory. Some impressionistic, technicolor fever dream.
So, I always heard "Song of the Summer" as this album's natural closer. The smoke clears, the fever subsides--now what?
Suddenly we're somewhere else, maybe someone else. But still dreaming.