"Instrumentation that I excerpted as an example of some of the sound palettes I thought could work on Darklife." - Keith

"This is the original first pass of what would become “Stay.” It was the second song we ever intentionally recorded for Darklife. James and I got together in Philadelphia back in February of 2020 to do a photo shoot and we recorded two songs together. We didn’t work on it as a group during the official “Darklife Sessions” of November 2020; Keith would add to it a few months after those sessions on his own, and then we would finish it all together as a group in February of 2022." - Tech

"James put this together at the end of the “In The Matrix” file. I originally wanted it to be a part of that track, like after the piano outro, to make this big long multi-suite thing, but thankfully that never happened lol. I added synth arpeggios later when we started performing the song as part of the quarantine-era livestream concerts." - Tech "This track contains a sample from an album I released anonymously that no one has found yet..." - James

"This is the original pass of what would eventually become “Sorry Pt. 2.” It was made all together during the November 2020 sessions but we didn’t focus on it - James exported this mix of it for Keith and I to take home, hence the “parting ways” titling. About a year later I would dig it back out and begin working on it long-distance with Keith to make the final version." - Tech "I called it 'Sorry Pt. 2' as a joke, because I loved the ambient loop at the end of the track so much and wanted to experience it for an extended period of time. I knew it probably was not going to end up on the album, but when I was making the 'take home' mixes for Tech and Keith I included it, telling Tech I was sorry - I just had to." - James

"When I first started recording music I made a handful of albums, and this is the opening track from one of them called Spooky Electric (named after a character from the anime and novels Boogiepop Phantom). The album was a mix of Philip Glass/Steve Reich style keyboard arpeggios and late 90s electronic music." - Keith "This recording, from 2005, would go on to become “Phantom You, In Four Parts.” I was always a huge fan of Keith’s pre-Giant Claw work, and especially this song. None of songs had official titles, so 15+ years ago when I was obsessing over his early albums he told me I could name them - I called this track “A Surgical Landing” and would end up later using that title on one of my Dinosaur On Fire albums. IIRC one of Keith’s old bands had a full rock band version of this song actually. Anyway, in the leadup to the Darklife sessions we all agreed to put together some demos, but I was struggling with writer’s block at the time and became more interested in the idea of resurrecting older material - this was one of four early-Keith songs I wanted to use (we ended up using three)." - Tech

"I almost opted not to include the "Katy-idea" tracks on the Anthology because the vocal samples are so haphazardly placed in the project file - I had barely even begun to chop them up or move them in tempo. But hearing something at this early stage of development is a decent illustration of how I might start a track or begin thinking about vocal arrangements." - Keith

"This was the first mastering pass of “Judgment Bolt.” It sounds pretty similar to the final version - the reason we included it in this Anthology is because of the vocal melody. We thought that the original melody, heard here, was too similar to the source material, so we decided to change it, but it was a big decision for us because we were so used to how the melody sounded. In fact we actually “leaked” this recording to our discord server’s mod team many months before “Judgment Bolt” was actually released because we were so sure that this would be the final version. To “fix” the issue we had with the melody, one of the things we attempted was actually having James record himself singing the melody, but it was too jarring haha (wonder if this recording still exists?). Astute listeners may also note that the tubular bell hit is gone, the piano twinkle in the middle section is missing, and the strings in the final section are much louder than in the final version." - Tech "In the lead up to the release of the song I just suddenly felt uncomfortable with the sample being so close to the original. I truly hope the recording of me singing the part never surfaces haha - but I was able to find a decent vocal chop, and then Keith added the second version of the chop and we alternated them for the final version." - James

"Most of this piece ended up in the first half of "Neon Memories" stitched together with Tech's demo. It originated from my Giant Claw remix of the Kai Whiston track "Lovers" - after I finished the remix I still had an itch to work with one of the vocal stems, so I wrote a mallet chord sequence underneath it." - Keith "Keith had this as a demo for Darklife and I was infatuated with using it somehow. I also had the idea of re-recording my old Rebecca Peake song “Neon Portal” for Darklife, but we didn’t address either idea during the November 2020 sessions. One day in 2021 I just got the idea of merging the beginning of this with “Neon Portal” and it fit like a glove (I think I just had to adjust the tempos of the two songs slightly). Keith would later manage to fit the latter half of this into the bridge of the song and that’s how “Neon Memories” was made." - Tech

"This is a Rebecca Peake song I made back in 2011. I was super into Grimes album ‘Visions’ at the time and I just wanted to make my own Grimes song lol. I remember being just incredibly proud of it at the time though, to the degree that around 3am in the middle of working on it, I texted James “I am so fucking good at making music” lmao. Just one of those times where you’re really feeling yourself, y’know? Anyway, I was always very, very proud of this song, so when I was resurrecting old ideas for use on Darklife, this was my first choice. I think its general nature lent itself to the overall “sound” of Darklife really effortlessly. Also glad to finally get rid of that weak bridge section." - Tech

"All of the "Target" tracks come from a single project file generating ideas around Miley Cyrus samples and a custom synth sound. This is probably my favorite of the group and I still hope to develop it on a future project." - Keith

"This was a very early demo I recorded in Logic when I was still making sketches that we might be able to use as frameworks when we all got together to record. As the name implies, I was trying to make a sort of 'chillout' beat with a catchy bass line. I was so pleased when Tech was able to work it into 'Dark Channel.'" - James "I remember James sent me this demo some time in 2020 and I was all about it, but we didn’t work on it during the November 2020 sessions so it kinda got left behind. I ended up putting the tracks from this demo into a different file that Keith had sent me in 2021 (“Slow-130-quiet-new-for-DDS”) and found that, with a little work, I was able to very seamlessly integrate it into Keith’s track and that’s how “Dark Channel” was made. So basically “Dark Channel” is a mashup I made of a Keith song and a James song haha" - Tech

"This slowed section of the 'Our Love' demo was made in preparation for Darklife, I thought it could fit in as a chorus somewhere, and it appears reworked in the end section of "Rare Angel"" - Keith

"I made this demo in preparation for the first Darklife recording session, but by the time we all got together I was already feeling like it might be too clean and pop sounding for the album, so I never proposed developing it any further." - Keith "I don't remember hearing this until putting together the Anthology, and now it's constantly stuck in my head." - James

"After our first Darklife recording sessions I felt attached to this song (which became “Light Left The Garden”). Though later in the process, when the album starting ballooning with tracks, it started to feel too repetitive, and to inject some interest we decided to add a new bridge section, which can be heard here in full. I really like the progression - me and Tech worked on it together during our second in-person recording sessions - and during the day it felt like it was coming together. But after closing the project for the night I kept thinking that something was off. The song had a certain ambiguous bittersweet quality that felt important to maintain, and the “Diamond Dust” bridge section shifted the mood. I got up early the next morning and recorded an entirely new instrumental replacement section (which can be heard on this Anthology in “CD Warehouse”) but I was still unsure which version worked better. James made me more confident in the decision by saying something like “we should follow whatever instinct compelled you to get up early just work on it.” - Keith "This is an earlier version of “Light Left The Garden.” A lot of it similar to the final version, but the middle section is *completely* different. Keith and I recorded the section together in person during the February 2022 sessions, but ultimately scrapped it the next day in favor of the vocal-driven part that is on the final version. We actually never even exported a mix that had this version, we just left the tracks in the file muted. When compiling this anthology, it was the first time we had heard this section in a year and a half and it is, in our opinion, the wildest thing on here." - Tech "Still one of my favorite tracks from Darklife, I'm glad we spent so long considering and recording different parts for it. The opening samples sound effects from the Final Fantasy XIV Shiva fight - at one point we thought it might be cool to have two tracks named after FF summon attacks, hence 'Diamond Dust.' In the end I'm glad we didn't." - James

"I thought this was worth including because it shows how I typically begin generating song ideas. I'll start by finding a combination of sounds, then improvise with them on keyboard searching for a sequence that sparks inspiration. I thought this particular piano and synth sound combo might be an interesting palette to use on Darklife, but we never got to it." - Keith

"This track dates back to the 2018 sessions for my HCMJ album 의미. 'Crash Dance,' the original version of what became 'You Are Burning Me Up Like This,' is a heavy, slow moving dirge about the dark side of following the call to adventure and living far away - in that it requires burning your entire life to the ground and turning your back on your friends and family to do so. The song spent a lot of time in development, but ultimately was too dark and heavy for the more introspective 의미. I brought it to the Darklife sessions with the faster drums and vocal chops you hear on the final version, but we were never able to get it to fit on Darklife either. I'm glad it's finally released on After Angel, although I spent so many years working on it it's hard for me to listen to and enjoy now!" -James

"Around 2015-2016 I recorded a lot of material for my Giant Claw project that I ended up abandoning. Some of that material has been revived in the ‘Reality 2: Archive of Fading Mist’ mixtape, and this song is another one from that period. It's the third movement of a larger piece, following "Our Love pt 1-2" (which appears later on this Anthology). I initially had another section that would glue all of the "Our Love" movements together but decided not to include it here because it was underdeveloped and I never considered it for inclusion on Darklife." - Keith

"The most developed of the "Target" tracks, I can imagine a world where an overhauled version of this made it's way onto Darklife." - Keith "Keith sent me this demo in 2021 (which would eventually become "It's Only Pain") and I was all about it. I would later add a few synth melodies to it, but my biggest interest was in the piano at the very end, which I would use to create the whole end section of “It’s Only Pain.” I just wanted that piano melody to keep repeating so I was more than happy to make it happen." - Tech

"A faster version of "Of Course She Was" with some alternate vocal chops. I kept tinkering with this demo but sometimes no matter how hard you try a song idea never really takes the shape you want." - Keith

"I recorded this in 2011 for Rebecca Peake. I had been listening to The Zombies' first album and was really into the simplicity of the song “The Way I Feel Inside.” Like a lot of Rebecca Peake songs, the lyrics are really macabre - it’s about a divorced police officer who discovers a dead girl’s body in a lake and pretends it’s his wife. I felt that a quiet, dark ballad like this would work really well on an album full of high-energy music so I wanted to resurrect it. For the final version of the song I ended up recording new synth and vocals for it, and Keith added all the orchestration, all done prior to the November 2020 Darklife sessions. James felt that it was perfect as is, so he didn’t add anything, making it the only song on Darklife that James is not featured on." - Tech

"Another song from one of my early unreleased albums, the lyrics are about waking up in a depressed cloud before I even know how to really articulate the feeling." - Keith "This was another early Keith song, from another album he made in 2005. Was always one of my faves, so I was eager to resurrect it and make a new version. I love Keith’s vocals on this, and the sound of that piano being slightly out of tune is haunting. In preparation for Darklife, I re-recorded the piano and sang the vocals but wasn’t sure what to do about the bossa nova-esque middle section. I remember texting Keith about it and he was like “just fucking get rid of it” lol. So that part of the song was abandoned in favor of a couple different ideas we tried out before settling on the final version." - Tech "Tech and I listened to Keith's pre-Giant Claw albums obsessively back in the 00s. I have to give Tech credit for having the idea to resurrect a lot of these songs for Darklife, even if some didn't make the final cut; they are such an important part of our personal history. Hearing the originals (especially the ones with Keith's out-of-tune upright piano) instantly teleports me to those times." - James

"I remember Keith texted me the "Katy-idea" tracks at some point but I can't remember if it was 2020 or 2021. We talked about the idea of me recording the vocal melody myself, replacing the sample, but it never got any further than that." - Tech

"I had loved this song right after I wrote it, but hundreds of songs later I had more or less forgotten about it. When Tech mentioned it as a song we could bring back for DDS I was flattered but didn't fully understand, until I re-listened and felt so teased by the ending. The '102 we need you' refrain promises what you hear on Darklife but does not deliver it. While the end section is about E-102, the verses were inspired by the Mines level of Phantasy Star Online." - James "This was always one of my favorite songs James made for the Rebecca Peake project. In particular I just wanted to hear the melody that happens in the coda of this recording repeat forever. So when I submitted the idea to re-record this song for Darklife we made sure to really stretch that part out haha. Since the release of Darklife, James has expressed that he misses the little middle eastern melody from the first half of this version that we ended up cutting." - Tech

"The working file for 'After Third Heaven' was called 'Fireside,' I still often think about Darklife songs as their original file names haha. Like the 'Sorry Pt. 2' loop, this was a cool ambient section in the song that I wanted to hear looped again and again, so I clipped it and looped it after the track on the song file so I wouldn't lose the bit while the song was gutted and worked on. This loop does appear in the final 'After Third Heaven' track around the 00:29 mark, but was never turned into a full song." - James

"One of the cool things about this Anthology is shedding light on the chaotic and sprawling labyrinth we navigated for years before arriving at the other end with the final album. This version of 'Neon Memories' is the result of me trying to overpower the steering wheel to turn Darklife towards a darker, noisier sound at the expense of the most pop-forward song on the album. Being in a collective with the two musicians I trust most on earth, I felt like I could take the song in a whole new direction and have it at least be considered. Tech tried his hardest to go there with me, even recording some vocal hits for the noise section. Eventually Tech and Keith felt the original better served the album - and ultimately they were right, I can't imagine 'Neon Memories' any other way now. A lot of the full-song chopping and stuttering in the final version of the track also first appeared in this version." - James

"Just an early mix of an instrumental version of the second half of “Light Left The Garden” that we wanted to include in this anthology to show some of the detail without the vocals obfuscating anything." - Tech "This is also a notable version of the ending, the first time the extended organ appeared at the end but before the bigger reverb cloud was brought in. Perhaps the most angelic version?" - James

"This is another demo I prepared before recording had begun on Darklife. It eventually became the song 'Before I Cool Off,' but this bare-bones version is still close to my heart. I used to have a 30 minute bike ride commute to work everyday back when I wrote this. I would listen to early instrumentals like this constantly while riding my bike, singing out loud melodies as they came - slowly but surely coming up with ideas every day. The end refrain especially was too fun to sing while I biked." - James

"The unused ending section from my early "Soft Channel 001" demo. My intention was to rework this segment somewhere on Darklife, and out of all my demos, this might be the one I wish had made it onto the album the most." - Keith "One of my favorite sections from anywhere in the Darklife recordings is the final section of 'Dark Channel.' It's an emotionally potent, perfectly looping chord progression dripping with longing and accentuated by soft vocal chops. This slowed version brings out everything I love about the end of 'Dark Channel,' turning the vocals into aching moans and expanding the sound into the void." - James

"One of the very few new recordings I was able to demo for Darklife (as opposed to re-recordings of older material), but I never even showed it to James and Keith, probably because it was such an undeveloped idea. They had never even heard it until we were compiling this anthology. I literally have zero memory of ever recording it." - Tech "I love this piece from Tech, and if he had shown it to us during the Darklife sessions I'm pretty confident it would have made it onto the album. Let's use it for something in the future!" - Keith

"This single-session version of what would become 'I Just Wanted To Know Love' is really dear to me. It was written before my wife Christina and I were together as a couple. We were just work best friends, who spent a day together making work purchases at Ikea. We had too much fun playing around in the store and flirting... It was the first warm day in weeks, we were both drunk on love. I came home floating, went upstairs and recorded this." - James

"This was the very first thing we ever intentionally recorded for Darklife, the earliest version of what would eventually become “Blast Jammer.” It was from the same session in February 2020 when James and I got together for a weekend in Philadelphia (we made “In The Matrix” the next day). James and I would frequently use the last section from this recording when we did quarantine-era livestream performances. For some reason we did not work on this track when we all got together in November of 2020 - Keith didn’t work on it until sometime in 2021. We also didn’t work on it when we all got together for the final sessions in February of 2022, probably because we decided to cut it from the album during those sessions. In many ways the final version of this song this song epitomized the “sound” of Darklife, so it’s a bit ironic that it isn’t on the album." - Tech "Darklife first truly sprouted during that initial session with Tech, and right at the start of this song. It felt so good to be recording again, we started with nothing and just kept coming up with insane ideas. It seemed like making the next album would be easy haha - but maybe we had too many ideas in the end. The sheer volume of tracks made getting it all cohesive as an album the biggest challenge of all. This track being cut from Darklife seemed like some kind of impossibility and it was hard for me to accept, but at a certain point you just have to let go and never look back. Glad to see the two iconic versions of it finally surface." - James

"This is just the isolated strings-hit from the climax of “Where Does It Come From?” We wrote the whole song together in the same room in one night in the February 2022 sessions, and all three of us contributed to this specific moment - it’s a very labored-over, special moment on Darklife." - Tech

"This is a simple midi demo I recorded which would eventually become “Phantom You, In Four Parts.” As noted on the earlier track “Spooky Electric No. 1,” this song was originally written by Keith back in 2005. That original recording file has long been lost, so I made this demo to get the ball rolling on a re-recording. I made a few minor changes but it is basically just a replica of Keith’s song, using mostly Logic’s stock synth sounds, most of which were replaced for the final version. I had to learn the song by ear and it was very difficult to parse some of the more dissonant chords lol. The biggest difference between Keith’s song and this recording is that I added a piano part that I had written for another song a long time ago called “Gladys Bow.”" - Tech "I'm so glad we kept the synth bass from the mid section of this version in the final song." - James

"This was one of those pieces that comes together quickly. I began by trying to make an obnoxious EDM synth hit, but I loved contrasting that mood with the distortion and slow build midsection. Tech's counter melody adds a lot and it's bizarre hearing it absent from this early demo version." - Keith "This is Keith’s original demo for “Fade Persona.” I love how raw and blown out it is. Also really love the guitar sound in the middle section. He sent this to me in 2020, but for some reason we didn’t work on it as a group when we got together in November of 2020, though we were pretty sure it was going to end up on the album anyway. In 2021, Keith and I worked on it long-distance. I added some things to it - mainly one of the core melodies, and the cut-time snare in the coda, and then Keith refined those elements. James would later replace a chunk of the middle section with the noisy section he originally had in the “Acid Melt Version” of “Neon Memories.”" - Tech "I remember when Keith first sent us this track we were so excited for its energy to be on the album. My first instinct was that it would be a perfect opener. This track was extremely difficult to mix and master though, as the original had a blown out raw energy I didn't want to lose while trying to bring it in line with the rest of the album. I'm really proud of how it feels completely at home with the other tracks on Darklife when I hear it now, but I'll always love this rawer version." - James

"This beat, based around a Girls Generation sample, was intended for the rapper ConQuest years ago, but I never finished it. When I was going through old files looking for potential Darklife demos I did some additional mixing on it and changed the sub bass sound, but never took it any further." - Keith

"This track came from one of those inconsequential days that you just never forget for some reason. I remember Christina and I were working from home during the pandemic, and in the morning I just had the urge to hear 'Sally's Song' from Nightmare Before Christmas, a song I've loved since I was a kid. I just wanted to make a quick eccojam, but ended up getting weird with a few vocal cuts from the last cadence. A half hour or so later I got distracted and closed the file, never opening it again. Thank you for finding it, Tech!" - James "When I was working on “Sorry Pt. 2” I looked through additional demo files to see if I could find any unused material I could add to it and this felt very suitable. I didn’t even know what it was because it was one of James’ demos (we never even opened the file when we had gotten together in November 2020), but it added a lot of mood to “Sorry Pt. 2”" - Tech

"This is the original demo for what would go on to become “Fall For Me.” To me, this is the flagship demo for all of Darklife. It was one of the earliest demos James sent to me (along with “Deep Chill” and “Quasi Jam”) and was my favorite among them, the file was just called ‘DARKLIFE’ and I used to listen to it on repeat, wondering what a whole album of this kind of thing would sound like. Was so excited to finally work on it all together as a group in the November 2020 sessions where we fleshed it out a lot more. It took a very long time for “Fall For Me” to finally sound good enough to be on the album (to the point that James completely re-recorded the drums and I recorded new vocals for it, both only a couple days before the album was due lol). Also, there exists a voice memo on James’ phone of his idea for this song and it is very precious." - Tech "I'm glad Tech totally understood this track from the start as being emblematic of what Darklife could be. On its own, it's a pretty simple demo - but imagining what the three of us could do with it if we were all in the same room was irresistible. The voice memo acapella version is completely ridiculous as I attempted to beatbox the drums, bass, and arp all at the same time haha. I was able to actually make what I initially heard in my brain, though! For a musician, there is no greater joy than getting it down exactly as you imagined." - James

"This is a strange, short-lived version of “Killed The Duke of Earl” and “Where Does It Come From?” When we all got together for the final recording sessions in February of 2022, one of our missions was to make “KTDOE” better, because it wasn’t strong enough to be on the album. So we decided to cut out the middle section of the song and replace it with something new. We ended up writing “WDICF?” We listened back to what we had done, and it became immediately obvious that “WDICF?” should be its own song, and that “KTDOE” would need to be cut from Darklife. We would end up adding piano, strings, and harp to “WDICF?” too, but this is what it all would’ve sounded like had we not decided to do any of that." - Tech "It's still crazy to me that 'Where Does It Come From?' started as a Hail Mary to try to salvage the work we had done on 'Killed The Duke Of Earl.' I separated from Tech and Keith, locked myself in my room, sat on my bed crosslegged with my guitar and didn't come out until I had the new song. Making 'WDICF' its own song was the only correct choice, but this combined version I do feel works as an emotional prog journey. It's especially cool because it's Tech singing Keith's lyrics and then I sing my song - all three of us in there." - James

"An even slower version of the first minute of this beat can be heard in the middle section of "Judgement Bolt." The latter half was a Darklife idea from the same project file that I completely forgot about until we started compiling this anthology collection." - Keith

"This piano passage would go on to become the middle section of “Phantom You, In Four Parts” but it’s been around for a long time. I wrote it back in 2006/2007 - it was originally part of an idea I had to make an album that was full of RPG stuff. I don’t remember too much about it - I remember that it was going to be a collaborative effort between me and Michael Kirkland, the bassist of our old band The Sailing. He had some song ideas like “The Battle Of The Sun” and “The Sword Of Laiselison,” and I had some songs like “Suncrust Armor” and “Gladys Bow.” Anyway, it was something I played on the piano a lot over the years but I never recorded it until we started making demos for Darklife. This was the original demo I made, but we never needed to use it because I re-recorded it for “Phantom You.” There was actually a second part to “Gladys Bow” but I didn’t record it because I felt the piece was better without it." - Tech

"This track came from wanting to incorporate more Animal Crossing into my virtual DJ sets and joint DDS sets, which were frequent at the start of the pandemic. I had always wanted to make a track using the various in-game TV audio from the older Animal Crossing games - there's something so otherworldly and eerie about the melodies. It was so fun-yet-menacing to drop this during sets and just dance around. I tried so hard to get this working as a mid-section to 'Killed The Duke Of Earl,' but it was a case of trying to fit a round peg into a square hole." - James "This an early, extended version of the middle section from “Killed The Duke Of Earl.” It was another song we played a lot for quarantine-era livestream performances. In November 2020 we added it to my recording of “KTDOE,” decided that it wasn’t strong enough, so we replaced it with “Where Does It Come From?,” then decided that “WDICF?” was strong enough to be its own song, and then put this back into “KTDOE” and cut it from Darklife." - Tech

"This is an early version of my Giant Claw track Soft Channel 001 from the album Soft Channel - it’s more steady and beat-driven than the final track, including a whole new end section that I cut from the released version. When thinking about song ideas for Darklife, I sent Tech this project file thinking I had deleted everything before that unused “In Your Arms” end section, but it turns out I sent an earlier save that had the whole track intact. So Tech ended up essentially remixing Soft Channel 001, mixing it with another James demo ("Deep Chill") to make the track we titled “Dark Channel.”" - Keith

"Around 2015-2016 I recorded a lot of material for my Giant Claw project that I ended up abandoning. Some of that material has been revived in the ‘Reality 2 : Archive of Fading Mist’ mixtape, and this song is another one from that period. The ‘chorus’ part was reworked on the track “Rare Angel” from Darklife, but this original structure goes through a few more movements ("Try Doing" is a third movement that can also be heard on this Anthology). The opening vocal samples are from my friend Tamar Kamin, who sent me a chromatic vocal scale that I chopped into one shots and MIDI mapped." - Keith "This material could've been become the 'Nothing Like This World' Darklife never had." - James

"A basic flip of a Miley Cyrus sample. I know there was a reason I named the project file this series of tracks comes from "Target" but the exact truth is escaping me. It likely sprang from my Giant Claw song "Soft Target" - a lot of times a project file will contain so many different ideas that it branches off into alternate saved versions and a naming convention ends up persisting for years as each segment is developed and becomes a new song of its own." - Keith

"This is the first mix of “Perfect Angel.” In November 2020 when we were all together recording “Rare Angel,” James got the idea to make a noisy song based on one of the noises at the very beginning of “Rare Angel.” We left the sessions without actually working on it, but James said he would do it on his own and a few weeks later he sent us this. We would add some stuff to it in the February 2022 sessions, but by and large “Perfect Angel” is almost all James and it stayed pretty true to this version." - Tech "When James sent this track I was instantly excited, it felt like a climax that was more about heaviness and abstraction than our usual grandiose tendencies." - Keith "One of the last things we did together in the February 2022 session was replace the sample during the final 45 seconds of this song with original MIDI performances by Tech. He meticulously recreated every element of the sample you hear in this version. It got pretty frustrating towards the end haha, but it all mixes together so well on the final version." - James

"This was my initial demo of “Dark Matter.” The music on the track comes from an early Keith instrumental recording from 2005 (from the same album as his version of “Killed The Duke Of Earl”) called “Don’t Steal His Breath.” It has long been one of my favorite songs Keith has ever recorded so I was eager to resurrect it for Darklife. In 2020, prior to the main Darklife sessions, I tried to record my own version of it with piano and synth but I didn’t like the way it sounded, so I didn’t have a demo of it when we all got together. But in 2021, I decided to just write lyrics and record myself singing over an mp3 of “Don’t Steal His Breath,” which is what this is. I sent this file to Keith and he completely overhauled the song, totally removing his original 2005 recording from the mix. When we all got together for the final sessions in February 2022, we added a short, distorted clip of the original recording back into the song to pay homage to the original recording." - Tech "I wrote the lead melody here as a vocal part, but for whatever reason never actually recorded vocals - I just had the lines floating around in my head since 2005. When Tech added new lyrics for Darklife, I suddenly realized that they had replaced my original words, even though I tried to recall them they had finally slipped out of memory." - Keith

"One of the only new demos I made for Darklife (the other being “Bass Slam”). It’s a very simple demo of an off-the-grid, improvised performance using a Chinese zither virtual instrument. James and Keith had never even heard it until assembling this anthology. Darklife was made during a very disturbing and depressing time in my life - this was just me at a keyboard, utterly unable to write anything because I was so sad for months on end. Thankfully, the November 2020 Darklife recording sessions revitalized me, and when I came back home from those sessions my writer’s block was gone. Listening to “Zither” for the first time in years takes me back to that time and conjures some pretty intense emotions - despair, regret, and guilt, but also freedom, joy, and love. It’s a dark life!" - Tech