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Jason S. Thompson – “Troy’s Bucket”
Earlier this month, Jason S. Thompson released his latest EP and first for Paper + Plastick, called Half Empty. Thompson previously played in The Sky We Scrape and is a current member of Little Teeth. The record was written throughout his move from Chicago to Germany and was recorded entirely in Thompson’s home. When detailing the writing process, he said “Some of these songs are older songs that I reworked for the album because I thought they would be a good fit, and others are only a few months old. The most recent is ‘Timezones’ and I wrote that one during the recording of Half Empty. The overall writing process for more ‘solo’ stuff was during the swan song phase of my old band, The Sky We Scrape. I had a small batch of songs that weren’t a great fit for TSWS, and since that band was breaking up, I decided to rework them into something I could do on my own.” He continued, “Another large factor for Half Empty was my move to Germany. Focusing on a solo album is a much easier way to create when you move away from your social and musical circle that you’ve been with your entire life, so that made it an easier transition.”
Recording at home had both advantages and difficulties, according to Thompson. It allowed him to learn more about engineering while simultaneously taking his time, but it also didn’t provide a distraction-free environment that a typical studio often does. In terms of the finished product, he said “My favorite aspect of how Half Empty was recorded is probably the fact that I let myself make mistakes and not make it a ‘perfect’ album. I wanted it to be more of a reflection of what a small living room show might be like. I make some flubs at times and sometimes you’ll hear some fret buzz or scraping. Sometimes the notes aren’t perfect, but for this album I didn’t want to stress about that. When I play live, I’m not going to be perfect and this is sort of a reflection of that mentality.”
We’re streaming one of the album’s tracks below, which Thompson wrote when he was at a crossroads in life. He explained, “I was working at a job where I wasn’t feeling creatively fulfilled and my old band was offered our second tour of Europe, so I had to make the decision to either stay at that job or to take the tour. I quit my job and made the jump to freelance so that I could go on tour, and the song is basically me working through that at the time.” He added, “It was one of the best decisions I ever made and after a year of freelance the same company I left offered me a new job where I’d be able to live half the year in Germany and half the year in Chicago. I ended up going back to them after a year off and that’s what ultimately led me to moving to Germany full-time. Now I’m over here in Munich and whenever I play that song I always laugh because this is not how I expected it to all play out when that song was written.”
Check out the song now and order a digital copy of the record here, (this version has an optional enamel pin). The record is also available with custom whiskey rocks glasses and those can be ordered here. Lastly, 25% of all Bandcamp proceeds will go to Hope for the Day, an organization that is committed to suicide prevention and mental health education.
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