Track By Tracks: Alex Sevigny - Travels In Mind (2017)

1. Opening:

This track was really something different for me to write. I actually initially came up with the main riff in a Wentworth Music store trying out a Jackson 8 string guitar. I couldn’t quite put the guitar down after that. I was definitely influenced by CHON’s jazzy tonality while writing it and just meant for it to be a happy/bouncy start to the album.  

2. Expectation/Reality:

This song was inspired by some of the people in my life at the time, the kinds of people that start off seeming like really cool people but then eventually turn out to be malignant.

3. Animalistic:

This track is probably the darkest and heaviest track on the album. The song is about the “Animalistic Tendencies” of the human race and how we can act so evil to one another with seemingly no remorse.  It was definitely a lot of fun to write and record something a little heavier for this album. 

4. Pinnacle:

This track was born of extreme frustration. I was so frustrated that I just had to record something on guitar, and this song is what came out naturally. At the time I had just been promoted at work to a position that I wasn’t quite ready to handle. The expectations and workload at the time had me in a super dark place. That period of time was kind of a huge part of what drove me to write this album. 

5. Pressure:

This song refers to the same general circumstances as the previous song, though seen from a different frame of mind. This song depicts the pressure that I felt to succeed and maintain in my position, despite the overwhelming decline in my mental state.  This song was the sound of my anxiety at the time. 

6. The Blur of June (ALAN):

The Blur of June is where the album starts to take a more positive turn and it references the tendency for time to just fly by and leave you wondering “What happened?”, while staring back at a blurry mental image. This described the month of June of 2016 for me. 

7. Waving Goodbye to Summer:

This is the song about summer just flying by, it’s all about reflecting on the good times and looking cautiously optimistically to the future. 

8. 4Months:

This song was created as an all-encompassing depiction of the album’s score themes. It delves into some strong melodic phrases and then lapses into heavy grooves and breakdowns. Its goal is to represent all of the emotions I felt during the 4Months that I experienced while writing the album. 

9. Myra, Misty Void:

I came up with the concept of this song while visiting the Myra Canyon Trestles near my town of Kelowna with some friends. We’d decided to go for a late night drive and had ended up there. While driving there we ended up driving into a Cloud (or that’s what it seemed like). We got out of the car and walked over the trestles and through a super long tunnel that was absolute pitch black in the center. I have this vivid memory of standing in the middle of one of the trestles and just staring into the Misty Void, while simultaneously staring into myself. 

10. Return to Ether:

Returning to Ether, to me, signifies myself stepping down from my previous position in favor of returning to my old job, and what felt to me like a much more normal and happy life. At the same time, this really helped me to re-evaluate the direction my life was moving in and helped me to straighten up my life and redefine my goals. I had found a little peace of mind, and this album fully represents that feeling to me.