Inaiah Lujan–crooner and songsmith of Haunted Windchimes and Sugar Sounds fame–released today a collection of rough cuts and lo-fi recordings of twelve songs that he wrote in 2012. As he describes on his bandcamp page, the recordings on this digital album were never necessarily intended for public consumption…
What we have here is a song journal, a collection of the songs I have written and recorded this past year in their earliest stages and rarest forms.
I have got into the habit of always recording my songs on my phone, it’s always on me and my memory isn’t what it used to be when it comes to remembering newer tunes. It’s also a good way to evaluate and edit, and surely has been a major component in my song writing process.
Being that they are phone recordings, the tracks are varying in quality. Some of the tracks were recorded in a tour van while on the road with The Haunted Windchimes, some in kitchens and livingrooms, in bathrooms and near rivers. Any place really, that I could sneak away for a short moment to be alone with my guitar. Some of the songs you will recognize as being Haunted Windchimes songs or from my most recent project Dog Days, but before they’ve been fully realized and arranged. There are a few songs that I had even forgotten about, and some that take me right back to the place I wrote them.
Production quality aside, this collection is a testament to Lujan’s talent as a songwriter. In fact, the roughness of the recordings seems to actually foreground the haunting beauty of his melodies and guitar/banjo arrangements. Check out the song “Spinning The Wheel” below, and head to his bandcamp page to hear/download the album in its entirety.
