My last album « Slurrup » was supposed to be a new beginning, but it turned out to be an ending both personally and professionally. Between business problems, getting laid-up sick after an exhausting European junket, and my beloved dog of eighteen years dying amidst it all….. I was devastated. I decided to leave the freezing tundra of the Midwest to come out to sunny L.A. to try and catch a wave. I had a notion to move forward with some new songs; to do something different with some new musicians and to get a feel for the city. After riding L.A.’s buses and attempting to be a pedestrian, I ended up getting chased down the middle of the street by an unhinged drifter. This led me to buying a used, oil-burning SUV, which came with a great stereo, a surprise manufacturer’s recall, and a diagnostic code that was nothing less than a death sentence. It had everything but directions to the scrap yard. Bewildered, I retreated to Luther Russell’s little 4-track cassette garage studio in Pasadena and started laying down some of this new music merely for the fun of it. To my delight, what I heard played back didn’t sound like some « lo-fi » exercise. Luther and I both realized that we weren’t just cutting demos; there was a « real » record there. I named it « Mirage Garage ». For me, the experience of making it felt like a respite from the grind of everything I had been going through (not to mention the oppressive nature of technology these days). Maybe listening to this record will offer you a respite too.(liam hayes)
perseverancevinylique 