Passenger by Alec Harryhausen

OK, so I made this thing called Passenger. I’m not sure you can call it an album because it’s only 23 minutes long. I’m trying desperately to avoid pretension here, but if I’m being true to myself it’s a piece with three movements. And each of those movements has three parts.

When I started recording it, I didn’t know what it was about, I just knew that the angry, political, technical punky stuff I’d been doing with Dream Version was leaving me out of touch with a big part of myself. For musical and personal reasons, I wanted to get back in touch with a softer, romantic side, a side I hadn’t really fully explored musically since college. Because of my associations with that time, I was drawn to the sound of albums like The Frames’ For The Birds and the mindset of albums like The Microphones’ The Glow Pt 2. Phil Elverum has always used nature as a way to communicate about his inner life, and as I worked on this on and off over the course of a few years, I was always most drawn to this project when the wind got cold and the flat Illinois landscape turned golden brown.

Lyrically, I suppose you could call this a coming of age story. It’s a story about cars and trains and my desire to not be the one in control, unless we’re talking about the CD or DVD player. It acknowledges that there will be a moment in my life when I will be forced irrevocably to take responsibility for myself and the people around me.

I recorded it mostly on my own, but Emily Jane Powers contributed lots of beautiful string playing and moral support. My former bandmates in Natural Monuments made the final track come alive, through Aaron Quillen’s great drum part and Travis Bravender recording and mixing the drums, a task I realized was way beyond my technical talents. Christopher Gilbert served patiently as a sounding board for mixing concerns, then mastered the record. I’d also like to acknowledge Tom Giltrow and Stephen Dahmer, who might know this version of myself (musically and personally) better than most.

I humbly urge the use of good headphones. If you like to read along, the lyrics are on Bandcamp.

Alec, October 2022

Alec Harryhausen is currently the lead singer and songwriter of Chicago indie rock band Dream Version. In the past, he's recorded work solo and with southeast Michigan band Natural Monuments.

alecharryhausen.com
dreamversion.us
Natural Monuments