I was driving on the Five from San Onofre to the nearest emergency room, which was eight miles away in San Clemente. Blood ran down my neck and I told myself that I was calm.
We had just finished the west coast tour that followed our singles club release shows and album. I went to a small town called Encinitas with the intention of writing our next EP. A nine-foot longboard outside the studio, the lengthy breaks at Old Man’s, and a broken relationship back in Washington, DC all distracted me.
Like orange juice, I was on the table pure, shaken, and unsettled. I got five stitches in my face. And I had a skin deep cut from the surfboard’s fin on my windpipe that made me feel lucky that my face broke the board’s momentum.
Though scaring and not all that productive, I left with California with a demo of “Your Room is a Club.” I got the stitches removed in Chincoteague, VA where I learned the chords to country songs and hymns that I played at my Grandma’s 90th birthday party in Pennsylvania.
When I returned to DC, I listened to my old demos with new ears and relived the moments when these songs came to me; all moments when an ordinary situation seemed to be off in a remarkable way, like realizing that something is on fire.
Dog-earing good memories of bad judgments until their power faded.
Sitting on the edge of a bed like it was undiscovered continent.
Hearing a yoga DVD tell me to relax, “your arms, relax your legs, relax the space between your ears.”
Weathering a storm and thinking that it swept over great generals planning for war as well as those of us watching Big Top Pee-Wee and expecting the lights to go out.
In these songs, I now felt that I had most of what I was looking for. We poured life into them: playing them, touring with them, taking them to Inner Ear where TJ Tipple recorded us, then mixed and mastered them patiently.
Hug Point is a release. It is meant to signify neither the beginning nor the end, merely when things come together.
credits
released March 9, 2019
Vocals and guitar: Jess Matthews
Lead guitar: Kristina Buddenhagen
Bass: David Johnston
Drums: Sammy Ponzar
Backing Vocals: Olivia Mancini
All songs by Jess Matthews.
Recorded at Inner Ear and mixed by TJ Tipple.
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