Over the last twelve years, our band has been mighty lucky to chug along in as natural way as we could have hoped. We’re not particularly well known on a lot of levels, but we also haven’t experienced the slippery slope resulting from premature or undeserving gains. No one ever gave us nice hotel rooms before we felt like we deserved them, and the red wine and baby carrots and various backstage luxuries didn’t exactly show up too soon. actually, they still don’t show up most times. But I guess we’ve managed to do this thing in workman-like fashion. We march and roll and fly and sail on in our own sovereign, hands-on kind of way, and continue to have a real good time doing it, growing and learning as any family might together.
Our fans have taken good care of us over all those years and we’ve made a phenomenal amount of friends over many, many miles. Somehow things just get a little better with every passing year, too. It feels good to be able to say that. I guess perseverance, continued inspiration and love for one another can lead to that.
We’re about to release our 13th and 14th records next. Both of our bands, Centro-matic and South San Gabriel are included. The collection is called Dual Hawks. The idea of making it a double split release stemmed from the want to do something unusual but fan-friendly. In addition to that, we are assembling a limited special edition release, complete with a beautiful 30-page book full to the neck with the fruit of Matt Pence’s, Julie Miller’s and Mark Ray’s awe-inspiring talents. Matt’s phenomenal photography continues to exist as the perfect, rightful document of our bands’ life. His body of work holds the most fitting timeline of images I could ever hope to have represent this chapter of our lives together. Julie is a new friend of ours, a kind and devoted fan for some time now. After finally seeing some of her stunning work last year, we instantly knew that we wanted her involved with this release. She’s been very generous to contribute this endeavor. With the mix of Matt and Julie’s efforts, combined with our friend, Mark Ray’s always fitting and beautiful design and art direction, we felt like we had the right mix for this special edition release.
And so here we are. It’s an involved batch of music. There’s a good bit to sift through, and it’s against the grain at points. It begs a chunk of patience and time from its listener. But as far as I’m concerned, that’s the point of independent art. It’s not always convenient. It’s not always tidy and easy to categorize. That’s the kind of liberty we get to enjoy as a creative group of people fully in control of our own destiny. This is our ship. Why not paint it and sail it the way we want? Most importantly we feel like it’s the kind of release that’s specially designed for our friends and fans that have soldiered on with us over the years. so, to the mechanics of our spiritual engine, the painters and foundation supporters of our cottage industry, the sober drivers of our emotional fuel truck, and the night owls and guards of our sentimental forest, maybe see ya’ down the road!
— Will Johnson
