our new EP flight tower is now live on all platforms! it’s the second of the five EPs we’re putting out this year. it’s arriving into a different world than the one it was conceived in, and that’s a beautiful thing. for me (dave) this cycle of EPs is about growth, transition, liminal space, shifting identity. alan ginsberg had a phrase ‘first thought, best thought’ to talk about a particular kind of writing — not automatic writing exactly, but quick, spontaneous, trusting. (arthur russell gave the name to an album, which is how i heard about it). for me, these songs are about rediscovering that place, after the stereo ouroboros of the ivo shandor era (s/t & llp). and i think for us — felicia, maia, kristin, mike and me — it’s about finding it for the first time: playing, writing, learning together as a new band. flight tower — i don’t know what that phrase means. it came to my mind as a random association, but i trust it — first thought, best thought. flight tower is both high and ascendent. it’s in motion and sees the world from a bird’s-eye pov. lockdown showed us all that we can come together and, on a dime, radically change how we live. as insane and difficult as it’s been in so many ways, the silver lining is that we’ve learned that things don’t have to be the way they are, or were. it can change. we can build the world we want. when felicia and i were translating the vocalise melody of self design (as heard in slide 1 !!) we weren’t sure whether the phrase should be ‘self design’ or ‘safe design.’ emotionally, it felt like the concept that the melody suggested was ‘self design,’ but the actual physical sound of the vowels and consonants was ‘safe design.’ it remained a riddle even as we finished the song (first thought, best thought). but lately i’ve started feeling like that self/safe rub is like a glinting hieroglyphic of something larger. self design / safe design means, as a people, as an embodied whole, let’s design our society so we take care of ourselves and take care of each other.