Meet The Exploding Pea

The Exploding Pea started in 2013 as a project to write/record one-minute pop songs about the little things encountered in life, as well as strange fictional stories that could be sung in a minute or less. The songs were posted on Tumblr with a photo. The concept winded down shortly after writing/recording a song a day in September 2014. Of the 30 songs recorded that month, eight are featured on the album "Pea soup". It was a happy time for me, and you can hear it in my voice.

After spending 2014-2020 focusing on original songs about childhood memories with my good friend and fellow bandmate Nick as The Challenges, I started The Exploding Pea project back up again following the emergence of Covid in 2020. The recordings released that year were instrumental/field recordings with sparse piano that I recorded in the spring, often taking sounds from the walks I did while on lockdown with my son around the neighborhood. That fall, my mom died of cancer, so to cope I recorded pop songs again. Select songs from the spring of 2020 and fall of 2020 were released as "Hanging with hen by a tiny tree".

Lost Pursuits is about finding your north star through a blend of original songs with some remixed CC0 samples found on freesound.org. Despite some of the more somber sounds, the message I ultimately try to deliver is one of hope.

Lost Pursuits - Released 2023
When you're little, it's easy to lay down in the grass, roll down a hill, and get back up. That's what the little kids in my neighborhood do to pass the time until their older siblings get dismissed. They roll, they run, they climb trees … anything to keep moving while the parents stand still waiting. What do the kids think about their parents just standing there? Why don't they do fun stuff instead while they wait?

Song for the kids, which started this whole idea, takes samples, melodies, and beats from freesound.org that are licensed CC0, modified and layered on top with my vocal melodies and lyrics. The vocal melodies and lyrics of most songs from Lost Pursuits were inspired by the cool stuff I played around with on freesound.org. The title track and Sometimes on the other hand were old guitar songs that were reworked using cool free sounds to give them new life.

What Lost Pursuits is really about is retracing your steps to better understand your north star. What are you moving towards? How will you get there? I may feel like I've found a new pursuit, I may even pursue it for years only to find I was heading in the wrong direction. That's why it may be better to just watch the kids instead. - The Exploding Pea