Silver Sound Sessions

The Silver Sound Sessions was originally recorded in an afternoon back in '98 (prior to the Horror Vacui session) of basic tracking and a few days of intense, sleep-deprived mixing. The goal was to accomplish the idea of a silver sound, but the final result, said June, "could not have been called bronze, much less silver." Using low quality microphones and digital gear, Panic and his co. had hampered their abilities. All parties involved said that the sessions should be shelved.

One song, "Silver Sound," was remixed by Panic and Jim Zespy in The Diesel Lab of SuperAsbestos Records. It was released on Horror Vacui the following year. The remaining songs drifted from memory until two years later. In the summer of 2000, Zespy and Panic decided to revive the obvious energy and inspiration in the recordings. Guided by the same desire to achieve the silver sound (a symbolic manifestation of ideas first brought forth by Carl Jung and Plato), they experimented with different instruments, new vocals, and a few more tracks. Together, they birthed a "silver sound" that weaves pop music and melody with the inteligent craft of songwriting that June has become known for.

June explains this idea of the "silver sound" in the liner notes: "Three years ago I began lending greater credence to a group of images and phrases I had been passively receiving from myself for some time. The most dominant motif in this symbolism was the contrast between silver and gold which became the aesthetic cornerstone for a set of songs and, eventually (an unusually long 'eventually'), this album. Gold is often associated with sun - illuminating but potentially blinding. People with 'the sun in their face' are like those who attempt to look into the face of God and are made blind. It's all about the symbolism we as human beings ascribe. Symbols like these may appear esoteric, but they aren't mystical. They are just attempts to name something in experience for which words do not do justice."