The idea for this album began in 2008 after a particularly generative songwriting period. I knew that I wanted to produce an album of original music I had written, but I wanted to do it organically, in collaborative fashion with someone, rather than simply hiring studio musicians to lay down tracks for me. Since I had written all my songs on the piano and usually performed them solo with piano, as opposed to with a band, I didn't at that time have a clear sense of how I wanted to record them with other instruments. I also felt that the style in which I was playing the songs was more an imitation of piano-based songwriters I had listened to growing up (such as Elton John and Billy Joel) than it was a true expression of my inner muse. For five years, I put off the album idea and pursued other musical projects. Then, in October of 2013, I met Sean McVey, a talented drummer and music producer, at a party geared towards local musicians. After Sean heard some of my original songs, he suggested that I consider doing "remixes" of them, incorporating aspects of genres such as R&B, indie rock, and Electronic music that would give me an opportunity to imagine them in fresh, new ways. He also offered to record these new songs in his home studio, which was conveniently located right across the street from my apartment building. This was exactly the kind of collaborative partnership I had envisioned when I had first conceived of the album years before. Inspired and excited to see how I might envision my songs in different styles, I went about listening for hours and hours to contemporary artists in the Electronic music genre and familiarizing myself with techniques such as looping and sampling that were key aspects of their sound, but ones I had rarely used as a songwriter. After a couple of months immersing myself in these new genres, I was inspired to write new songs, and these new songs (not surprisingly) reflected the influence of all this immersive listening on my songwriting style. The first song I wrote in this stage (and the fourth track on this EP), "Can't Live Without You", was essentially an experiment exploring what would happen if I built a song around overlapping "loops" of short vocal phrases rather than a traditional verse/chorus format. It really took off when I met highly talented spoken word artist and social change agent Osa Obaseki, who wrote and performed the rap which ends the song. Empowered to explore the ways in which I could draw from various genres, I wrote a rock ballad laced with hip-hop grooves, "Honesty" (the third track on this EP) and followed it with an upbeat dance track named "Head Over Heels" (the opening track for the EP). In the latter case, Sean and I started to experiment with ways I could incorporate my extensive experience singing with acapella groups into my songs. We ended up recording background vocal tracks and applying digital effects to them so that they sounded more like instrumental textures. This song gave us a much clearer sense of how we could fuse my love of vocal harmony with the new forms of instrumentation and sampling that I had been exploring. Finally, I decided to take a song a named "Eliza" that I had written on the piano in 2003 and create a remix of it that applied doo wop harmonies and an R&B-based drum track, leading to the second track on the EP. I had originally arranged and recorded an acapella version of "Eliza" with a vocal band named Staticflow (composed of myself, Eric Olsen, Jeremy Goldman, Dave Baumgartner, and Lauren McCann) back when I first wrote the song, but I wanted to give it a new feel that fused rich vocal harmonies with instrumentation. I have included the original acapella version of "Eliza" that I recorded with Staticflow in 2003 as a bonus track. ALBUM CREDITS: All music composed and arranged by Andrew Callard, except for the bonus track "Eliza (Acapella Version)", arranged for acapella by Andrew Callard, Eric Olsen and Staticflow. All lyrics written by Andrew Callard, except for "Eliza", written by Andrew Callard and Jeff Campagna, and "Can't Live Without You", written by Andrew Callard and Osa Obaseki. All recording, mixing and mastering production done by Sean McVey, except for "Eliza (Acapella Version)", by Dave Sperandio and Eric Olsen. Cover art by Julio Jimenez (www.juliojimenezstudio.com) TRACK ONE: HEAD OVER HEELS Music: Andrew Callard Lyrics: Andrew Callard Vocals: Andrew Callard Drum tracks: Sean McVey All other instrumental tracks: Andrew Callard TRACK TWO: ELIZA Music: Andrew Callard Lyrics: Andrew Callard and Jeff Campagna Vocals: Andrew Callard Drum tracks: Sean McVey All other instrumental tracks: Andrew Callard TRACK THREE: HONESTY Music: Andrew Callard Lyrics: Andrew Callard Vocals: Andrew Callard Drum tracks: Sean McVey All other instrumental tracks: Andrew Callard TRACK FOUR: CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT YOU Music: Andrew Callard Lyrics: Andrew Callard and Osa Obaseki Vocals: Andrew Callard Rap: Osa Obaseki Violin: Katie Fischer Drum tracks: Sean McVey All other instrumental tracks: Andrew Callard Special thanks go to Katie Fischer for providing string parts at a moment's notice, Osa Obaseki for his profound poetry, and Julio Jimenez for his masterful work with the cover photo (shot in Rock Creek park here in Washington, DC). Also, kudos to all the members of Staticflow for generously giving me permission to re-release the acapella version of "Eliza" as a bonus track. I'd also like to thank two long-time friends and phenomenal musicians -- Ethan Elkind and Justin Carroll -- whose respective albums of original songs inspired me to make my own. To my siblings Katharine, Johanna, and Jonathan, for cheering me on as I saw this dream through, to my dad Tim, who gave me my voice, and my mom Trish, who gave me my passion to create. Finally, I'd like to thank Sean McVey, who was a model of patience, encouragement, and technical wizardry during the entire songwriting, recording, mixing and mastering process. I couldn't have asked for a more effective creative collaborator in making this long-time dream become a reality. -Andrew Callard