After protestations regarding the difficulty level of writing about his own music I was finally able to twist the arm of indie legend Jason Dezember (Plastic shoelaces, Nar, Bagpipe operation, Ski instructors) to write a track by track analysis of the Night Walk album by his The Ashenden Papers that was released on 05 May 2023.

Limited edition Vinyl LPS are available here from Secret Center Records and the CD here from Subjangle.

Summer’s Coming On

I only like summer in songs; in reality it sucks. Where I’m from and now live it is too goddamned hot. So fuck summer, really. But it’s great metaphorically and in this song it is something to look forward to.

I wrote it during a camping trip; I was afraid I was going to forget it so kept singing it in my head all weekend until I was well tired of it.

Jason Dezember: Vocals, guitars,

Rose Melberg: Backing vocals,

Leon Levy: Bass,

Matt Hull: Drums

The River Highway

I bought a 12 string acoustic guitar at a shop and took it home and did the lead guitar part on this and then returned the guitar. I was worried the chord progression sounded too much like La Bamba, so I asked my friend Marie to write a bass line that would counter the La Bamba vibe, and she really nailed it.

Marie is great at obscuring the plain undergarments of songs.

Jason Dezember: Vocals, guitars

Marie Davenport: Bass, keyboard

Matt Hull: Drums

Night Walk

This one was a bit of a compositional experiment. Just trying to approach music in a new (to me) way. No guitar chords; instruments operating independently rather than following each other; bass driving the instrumental melody. And then superimposing a pop song on top of the finished instrumental track.

Jason Dezember: Vocals, guitars, bass, keyboard

Ella Cross: Vocals

Matt Hull: Drums

Your Starlit Eyes

Deliberate attempt to try to make something I would have loved when I was 17.

Jason Dezember: Vocals, guitars, keyboard

Leon Levy: Bass

Matt Hull: Drums

Left on Henderson

Another attempt to write in a different way. I was noticing a lot of songs I like actually don’t have any changes at all in them, and I’m usually worrying over verse, bridge, chorus. So I set out to write a song with no changes, just a single three-chord progression. After I got the tracks and a few pints down, I let it run and ad libbed the vocals over it a few times until I had something decent.

I kind of like the lyrics which ended up being about what most of the other songs are about: how getting into nature and out of the madness of society heals.

Little Jumpy T

This was largely about my ne’er do well nephew who seems to be something of a lovable fuck up, and how he needs to just get off his ass and do something other than whatever the hell he is doing at the moment. But presented in a more avuncular and encouraging way.

I wasn’t sure this song was up to snuff for some reason but people seem to like it. Rose adds a ton of quality to it; and I like the outro.

Jason Dezember: Vocals, guitar, keyboard, guiro, claves

Rose Melberg: Backing vocals

Leon Levy: Bass

Matt Hull: Drums

Aventurine

This is a love song to a crystal roach clip. Also my first real attempt to write harmony vocals. I think they mostly work. They could be better. I like having the names of different crystals in a song as they are pleasant to the ear. Also most of them end in “ine” so it is effortless to rhyme them.

Jason Dezember: Vocals, guitars, bass, keyboards

Ella Cross: Backing vocals

Matt Hull: Drums

The Margins

Strikes me as a bit darker sounding than the others. Kind of about being in a rut but not wanting to get out of it. I wanted a different feel to this tune too, so I asked the antipodean Matt Bullimore, who mixed the last record, to lay down some leads on the outro.

They sound great, but I don’t know how I’ll play the song live since I cannot really burn up the neck like he does here.

Jason Dezember: Vocals, guitars, bass

Ella Cross: Vocals

Matt Hull: Drums

Matt Bullimore: Outro lead guitars