aloysius the band

mortise+tenon is the first new release in six years from the project known as Aloysius the Band, after 2019’s Good Noise. The process for that record informed this one: GN was recorded and partially written in-studio at Minnehaha Recording Company; time and attention constraints pressurized the half-formed ideas of that record and gave them shape.

The songs on M+T were also written “in studio,” but that “studio” was various untreated rooms in John’s house, with a motley assortment of recording gear and instruments, including but not limited to: an upright piano whose tuning pegs won’t stay put, a catalog guitar with frets so sharp they cut, a mini synth sent through some hand-built and temperamental effects pedals, a toy piano, an incomplete drum kit, microphones scrounged from various cousins. The difference between this approach and the previous was time; time to let the songs take root in the space, time to let the constraints of instrumentation and skill inform the song structures, and vice versa. From the opening track you’ll be situated in a real, lived-in place, listening to the sound of a room in a house, human breath, a piano. Hope you enjoy your time in this place.