Genesis of the album…
Album art: The front cover was shot and designed by Eden Redmond. I had run through about a million ideas for what this album cover should look like, but nothing seemed to fit very well. Once I thought of mimicking “The Creation of Adam” I knew it was the answer I had been waiting for. Plus I would get to fulfill my God complex by literally portraying God. I loved the idea of Mason as Adam and of myself pouring him a beer rather than reaching out for his hand. Here are a few Easter eggs (pun intended?) you might have missed:
-The garden behind Mason is kept up primarily by my wife, Eden, making it a literal “Garden of Eden”.
- The globe is intentionally showing the Americas, and it is no coincidence that the Antarctic is the first part of the globe to be “melting”.
-While it was mostly cut out of the picture, there is a large star behind me, representing mine (or God’s, same difference) place in heaven.
-In “The Creation of Adam”, you can see Adam’s little dingaling. Rather than having Mason flash the audience, we opted to have him hold a small cigarette in the same area instead.
-Mason is wearing a Grey Matter shirt, while I am wearing a Rent Strike shirt. Emma Grrrl, who recorded and produced the album, plays guitar in both those bands. The shirts also represent Science Fiction, and Fantasy, with Mason’s shirt rocking some aliens, and mine displaying a scene from a folk punk-esque Lord of the Rings.

The back cover photo came from my dad, Ron Newlin. The ‘erupting Wy’East’ concept had once been an idea for the front cover, a visual representation of the song “Post- Apocalypse”. Ultimately, I decided it worked better as a back cover. Eden Redmond did all the graphic design work on this as well.

Recording: The album was recorded at the Hen House (my house in Vancouver, Wa), in the basement, in a room that I have dubbed “The Bro-Zone Lair” (much to the chagrin of my friends and family). Emma Grrrl visited us for two weeks to workshop and record the album. On her first day here I fell super ill. As soon as I recovered she fell super ill. By the time she was starting to feel better, both Mason and Eden were catching on. Needless to say it took multiple takes to nail all the vocal tracks, but I’m still pleased as punch with the results. I knew I wanted the album to be nearly entirely gapless, and I am so thankful to have had Emma to make that possible. Many of the instruments (non banjo and acoustic guitar) were later recorded by Emma in Lansing, Michigan over the next several months.

Titles: This is Raccoon Venom’s 11th album, and 9th featuring Mason. I don’t think that in the 6+ years this band has been around I’ve ever struggled as much with naming an album or individual tracks than I had with this one. At one point I sent Mason a list of about a million potential titles for the album, and this one was his favorite. It happened to be my favorite too, so we kept it around.

Theme: In the months and years since my brother died, I have had an on again-off again relationship with my own ‘faith and misery’. After my grandpa’s funeral (just a few months after my brother’s), I found myself in a strange position: smoking a cigarette outside a church talking to the sky. I haven’t believed in God or heaven since I was a little kid, but it was still a somewhat comforting moment. Unfortunately that comfort didn’t last long, and I soon found myself once again angry at the world, and angry at a God I didn’t even believe in. Fury replaced grief. Angst replaced confusion. This album, and all the songs in it, both folksy and punk, were the result. Whereas our last album, “Ten” was a way to express our deep sadness and loss, “God! (and other bad influences)” is my pent up and perhaps overdue anger at the situation I, and many others, are forced into. However, while there is intense frustration throughout these seven tracks, there is also a small amount of hope. It is few and far between, but it exists. God may not be here to show it to me, but someone sure as hell is.