"And When it Rains" - Listening Notes by Zach Wiley:

This song was born out of a house-shopping excursion between Robert and his wife. He came to me with this wonderful chorus "I'm gonna buy you a house..." both music and lyric. I loved it. We added some verses and cut a demo. Itʼs a beautiful, catchy love song.

In the studio, we tried to remain true to our original demo with two acoustic guitars and vocals, but it begged for more. I recorded some light, simple drums, pump organ, and a little percussion to push it forward sonically. Our engineer, Stewart Myers, laid down a great bass part and the song came to fruition. I call the song Robertʼs baby, but it quickly turned into a favorite for both of us. Itʼs great song that just begs you to sing along.

"The Waters Edge" - Listening Notes by Robert Natt:

Itʼs absolutely one of my favorite songs on the record. It's huge sonically, with a very strong emotional impact.

When we were writing, I presented the chords and basic melody for the pre-chorus and chorus. We collaborated on the verses, bridge, and most of the lyrics. Itʼs a nostalgic love song with fairly universal themes, but it asks the big question of "What would the world be like without me?" This isn't supposed to be morbid, but rather questions our relational impact on others. Pretty heavy stuff.

Once we finished writing, we recorded a demo to work out some arrangements. I laid down my guitar and vocals, then took a break to walk my dog while Zach did vocals. When I came back, he had recorded a bunch of "oooohs" and "aahhhs" in 3-4 part harmony and casually asked, "what do you think of this?" It blew my mind. It was a Brian Wilson level of genius. I think that part makes the song for me. It really took it to another level.

In the studio, we tracked pretty huge guitar sounds and also added more instrumentation than most of the other tunes. It's a sonic masterpiece. We really pushed each other to get to a place that was better that either of us could've done individually.