behind the songs
I prefer to leave the meaning of my songs open to interpretation – part of the beauty of music is that it means something different for everyone and I love leaving space for that.
Here, I’ll give you just a peek into my intentions, and walk you through how we brought these songs to life. The rest is for your imagination…
I wrote Untitled in the cold, windy, winter of my first year of university, in 2021. The song is more or less about the beauty, and the push and pull of feeling lonely. I was a little stuck after releasing “This Moment” but the release gave me space to work on new music. I started writing what would become Untitled about a week after “This Moment” came out and it took a few weeks to piece it all together into its final form. The song had a new energy and I loved playing it.
Westward was written about a year later, in the fall of my second year of school. It’s a song of love and longing. The word and concept of “westward” made it’s way into a few different song drafts over the course of a few months, but I knew when it finally clicked. It seemed like a logical partner for Untitled, and I thought maybe it was the start of an album. But as I started to write more, the new songs didn’t fit and I decided to simply package Untitled and Westward together up in a celebration of love, loneliness, and longing.
here’s a voice memo draft of when I started putting the verses of Untitled together:
I started organizing a plan to record these two songs in summer 2023 while I was in NYC. Many factors and set backs later, we scheduled studio time for October at Shoestring Studio in Western, MA, just down the street from where I grew up.
Rusty (right), who owns the studio is one of the kindest people and he’s truly invested in helping artists bring their ideas to life. The space has an astounding collection of gear and I’ve always felt the most comfortable recording there. Nate (left), engineers the sessions there and he quickly became a friend.
Now, onto the incredibly talented musicians who played on the project!
I knew Caleb Kennedy (center) first as the brother of a childhood friend. Years later, in 2022, we played a show together and my struggle to find the perfect drummer had ended. He introduced me to one of his friends he met during college, Justin Lindsay (left), who’s maybe the most versatile guitarist I’ve played with. Over the summer of 2023, I played a show with him at Berlin Under A and his style matched my music perfectly. Finding Jack Davies (right) was closer to random chance. I was searching for an upright bassist for a show and out of the many people I was recommended and reached out to, he was the only one who happened to be available. We had our first rehearsal, and the rest was history.
I had played with Caleb and Jack in Boston, but we hadn’t played with Justin as a group until we all walked in the studio.
We spent 2 days in the studio and tracked the songs live, front to back. Beautifully simple.
Caleb and I spent a while mixing them as I pushed the release date further and further, before sending them to Mike Tierney (Shiny Things Studio) for mastering. Letting go is difficult, and deciding when to be done is even harder. But the time came, and now…
…they’re in your hands! I hope you find some warmth in them, and as always, thank you from the bottom of my heart for listening to and caring about my art.
I encourage you to ask any questions you have about the project, music, life in general by clicking the button below! I’ll answer them in my upcoming newsletters ❤️
Credits
Visuals:
Album cover photo by Angela Power
Behind the scenes photos by Julian Parker-Burns (1, 3, 4) and Mike Moloney (2, 3)
Music:
Music and Lyrics by Arden Lloyd
Vocals: Arden Lloyd
Acoustic Guitar: Arden Lloyd
Electric Guitar: Justin Lindsay
Upright Bass: Jack Davies
Drums: Caleb Kennedy
Recorded at Shoestring Studio
Engineered by Rusty Annis and Nathan Keith
Produced by Arden Lloyd
Mixed by Caleb Kennedy
Mastered by Mike Tierney
Special thanks to my family and friends for their unwavering support!