as a kid, i loved the idea of time capsules. little boxes you would bury underground or hide away, only to be uncovered in the future. i never actually made one, but it really appealled to me as a young child - the idea that at some far-off time, everything we took as normal would seem alien or obsolete.

in 2017, i was 20 going on 21. i spent a lot of time self-recording and producing a collection of songs i'd tentatively titled "we live for nights like these". they were broadly about finding a community i was yet to be part of, about the changing of the seasons, and about the worst years of my life spent in buildings that were at war with themselves and the people in them.

apart from a song called tidal wave, none of these recordings were ever released on one of my projects, even though lots of them became live staples of mine. i'm not sure why. maybe its because i felt unhappy with the quality of the recording, or maybe its because my life changed so dramatically after writing them in a lot of ways. either way, the songs remained frozen on a cloud, heard only by myself and a handful of close friends.

last week i played an online gig with my pals in long neck, fresh, me rex, and others. my dear friend the cosmonaut cassettes (also on said lineup) was one of the only people to hear these songs initially and requested i play a song called the first day of spring. it was the first time i'd played it in years. it made me realise that i actually can go back to these songs and let them loose, 3 years on.

i'm a different person now than who i was when i wrote these songs. mostly that's for the better. these songs are reflective of who i was then - a very confused 20 year old in a state of flux, still figuring out how to describe themself and who their people were. i've written a lot of songs since, but something about these were worth coming back to, like pictures of an old friend long missing.

some of the songs are about good times. some are about bad times. some are about the passage of time, beginnings and endings. all were written between late 2016 and mid 2017. some you may be familiar with, others maybe not. all of them mean the world to me.