Haymaker

With an earnest lyrical style and big hooky choruses, our sound lives inside a lush world of textures and riffs and a laid-back Californian sensibility.

ABOUT THE RELEASE:

Welcome to the Fever Dream sessions.

The songs from this session have an energy that came from being pent up and isolated for over a year during lockdown, to being around each other again and playing music in the same room. And it wasn't just any room either, our friend Darrell Thorp invited us to record this 3-track session in the gorgeous rooms at The Village in LA.

After an anxious year of pandemics, covid variants, personal health scares, and all the other bad juju the quarantine era brought, this session was a perfect oasis to break the anxiety that had built up since the lockdown began.

That's why the joyous energy had us buzzing. How cool was it to be around each other again, playing music with the best people, in the best place? Hopefully, some of that good vibe comes through in the music, and that the songs will help release the feverish anxiety into joyous catharsis.

Track 1 of 3: Haymaker

Edson Choi on the meaning behind the song:

I used to be deeply religious, doing ministries and community outreach weekly. One day, the sum of my doubts just hit me. I realized this or any religion wasn't for me.
 
I had built my life up to that point around this ideology; my friends, my community and plans for the future were centered around this faith. But to stay would be to betray myself and my new epiphany. And so, despite the comfort of belief and loving friends I made through my years in the ministry, I walked away and had to relearn thinking and how I should be living.
 
This rude awakening hit me like a punch to the gut, a blinding haymaker to the face. 
 
The song came many years after that experience, and it instead of it being a bitter takedown of faith and belief, I hope it highlights the beauty in the flaws of our world now. I hope it gives the energy of appreciating the beauty of our world and this life here, not a distant heaven. I tried to capture this thought with the song's closing lines:
 
"I'm just staring at too many stars againdon't judge me, cause we're all gonna go sometime."

Personnel:

co-produced/engineered/mixed by Darrell Thorp
Recorded at The Village in Los Angeles, CA
Mastered by Ian Sefchick

Vocals, Guitars: Edson Choi
Guitars, Synths, Omnichord: Mike Nissen
Jonathan Bradley: Drums

Written by Edson Choi and Talk Time

Additional players:
Bass: John Ransom Tucker

Cover Art: Mike Nissen
Golden Egg Art: Lauren Jennings Piper

Lyrics:

Dont lead me on cause Im head over heels
I see the way and I know it aint logical, logical
You wrap me up and its hard to conceal 
Its little things add  
I couldn't save when I saw the impossible
Impossible

Haymaker lay me down and rise
I feel the sun and I'm on my knees come night
Haymaker watch me twist and burn
I feel the sun and I know I'm an evil one, an evil one

Truth be told, I swear it was real
The ground would shake and the sky would turn on and off
But when all hell came apart at the seams
The simple questions asked
I couldnt wait for another surprise to come, police to ghost

Haymaker lay me down and rise
I feel the sun and I'm on my knees come night
Haymaker watch me twist and burn
I feel the sun and I know I'm an evil one, an evil one

Haymaker knock me down 
Around again, around again
Just stared at too many stars again
Round again, around again
Don't judge me out cause somehow 
When the clouds come apart now
Yeah we're all gonna die sometime
Yeah were all gonna go sometime


2023 Talk Time