Naturally, I felt a twinge in my heart, knowing how much I'd miss him; but more than anything, I was excited for the opportunities that potentially awaited him...

 

Of course I was concerned about what this meant for Widetrack, but once he told me that he'd be home from May through September, I realized we'd still have plenty of time together to pursue our musical endeavors...

 

Then he said that wanted to write and record an album that we could feel deeply satisfied with having made...

 

I believe his words were something to the effect of, "Let's really dig in and make a killer album before I go!"

 

 

 

As fate would have it, I had already written twelve or so songs, which were originally intended for an album I called, Galatea...

 

The theme centered around the story of "a lovelorn serial killer and the heroine redeemer of his dark obsession"...

 

Of those first twelve songs, Zach chose the first two, Saturnine and Red, to be included with the remaining six songs yet to be written for the album...

 

Having been so pleased with the music I'd come up with, I was at first a little disappointed that we were using only two of those initial songs...

 

But as he began showing me the stuff he was coming up with, my excitement overtook whatever disappointment I might've been feeling...

 

The songs he was presenting to me were just so damn good; definitely among my favorite stuff I'd heard him come up with...

 

I was intensely inspired to begin putting together vocals, lyrics and drumming ideas for these ones, and even more pleasantly surprised to find that he'd also written some of his own drumming ideas for a few of the songs...

 

 

On those, he would record himself playing the parts and I'd learn what he had played, then put my own spin on that...

 

Definitely the most challenging drum parts I'd ever played... He really put me through my paces on this one! lol

 

Once all the music was finally worked out, I began working on vocal ideas to present to him...

 

His feedback was always very supportive and encouraging, though occasionally he'd say, "How about trying something more like this...?"

 

I'd apply his feedback and eventually come up with something both of us liked that was even better than my initial ideas...

 

 

 

As the songs evolved, the initial subject matter I'd come up with still fit perfectly with the overall vibe of the music he was writing, and it took the lyrics that were yet to be written to some really exciting places...

 

I felt that I was tapping into a style of writing that some of my favorite earlier Widetrack songs like Star-crossed, Virtue, The Shrine, etc. foreshadowed; more "tragically romantic" than "analytically philosophical"...

 

It proved to be a much better fit for these particular songs, and potentially more relatable for the listener...

 

In the meantime, as we worked towards our deadline, we had the benefit of playing a handful of shows to premiere the new songs live...

 

This was a rare luxury that we hadn't been able to take advantage of too often in the past, and the final versions of the album's songs benefited immeasurably from rehearsing and playing live so much...

 

All this culminated in two final shows that were pivotal to the album becoming all it could be...

 

The first, on December 7th, 2024: we put on our own private show for a crowd of around 30 of our closest family and friends, where, along with our soul-brother, Dave Humphreys on bass, we debut the 8-song album in its entirety...

 

 

The songs were so well-received that we decided to book one last show before Zach left, previewing the entire album one last time for the general public, on December 28, 2024...

 

That show was definitely one of our best to date... A real corner was turned, in terms of us moving up a notch as a band...

 

It was an absolutely wonderful night...
 

 

By the time our deadline had arrived a mere few weeks later, we were pleased to find that, by pushing the envelope of our available time as far as humanly possible, we indeed managed to complete the album...

 

 

What an immensely fulfilling experience...
 

 

The following day, as Zach and I drove to Boston to move him into his dorm, we listened to the final mix of Galatea in its entirety...

 

I said to him, "You know I hope to be doing this together for a long time to come... but if something unforeseen were to happen, and this ended up being the last music I ever took part in writing, I would be totally OK with that."

 

(Of course, we're both counting on this definitely not being the case...)

 

Upon arriving in Boston, we checked in, got a good night's sleep, then spent the next day getting him settled in to his dorm and taking a tour of the school...

 

It was a fantastic day, and I was happy to see that he was in a great environment...
 

 

The next day, we woke up early and said our goodbyes as he headed off to begin his new journey...

 

As I drove my way back to Michigan, the full weight of the year's events began to hit me, and I was overcome with a flood of emotions all at once...

 

 

 

 

 

I smiled to myself as I pulled into home, having made it safely without incident, feeling that the next chapter was off to a good start...