I still have one more track I’d like to record, but I think I’ve got the bulk of the next Eponymous 4 album demoed. In June, I wrote 10 or so lyrics, which I added to the five or so I wrote over the past two years. I wrote music for 12 of those lyrics, 11 of which I’ve put on the new album. Early on, I got attached to the title 「健忘症」 (Kenboushou) because it means "amnesia" in Japanese. If Onitsuka Chihiro can title her album Insomnia …
I recorded one outtake, 「光がない」, which was a bit more in the style of Revulsion than any of the other new material. I may use it in a future project, or I may relegate it to a b-side or something. I’m saving three of the lyrics I wrote for another time. The music they call for doesn’t quite fit this album.
I didn’t set out to write in an alt-country kind of style, but when I wrote two songs in that mold, I figured it was sign. But I think it was the violin and cello that dictated how the writing turned out. I liked how they sounded, and I wanted to use those instruments as much as I could. This album is also the most guitar-driven of the Eponymous 4 works. There’s maybe an organ and piano on some tracks, but there’s an acoustic guitar on just about every track.
Given the country sound of the songs, I probably shouldn’t use the Japanese titles I used for the lyrics, but I like the incongruity.
Most of all, I’m just glad there’s a new Eponymous 4 album recorded, because I was kind of getting tired of all the previous albums.
By the way, this album is the first completely new material I’ve written. Nothing on this album was commandeered from an unfinished sketch or material from the archive. That’s kind of important to me because I don’t want to keep reworking things I wrote in the past.