“exhibit a” is a song I wrote about 23 years ago and I always wanted to do a multi-track version.  When I first started living on the houseboat on the Seine I found a photo clipping of a man in a white suit and hat walking his black bulldog from a small airplane.  It was sunny and I think he may have been wearing sunglasses.  No name was given.  The clipping itself was turning beige from ageing.  I also found a photo of Lana Turner holding her arms in the air and pulling off a long black glove but I didn’t write a song about it.
“linen white” is a song about the origins of Halloween and how the dead were wrapped in sheets and taken out through a hole in the wall that was then sealed up.  This was done in order to prevent a spirit from coming back to haunt the place.  I wrote “linen white” in October 2014.  The melody came to me as I was shaving one morning.  I remember it was dark outside and I could see the moon through the bathroom window as I was shaving.  I also remember thinking about a former bandmate named Christopher Furman and his daughter Violet.  I imagined Christopher singing to her and I think that influenced the melody.  I already knew the song would be about Halloween in some way.
In “she is so mysterious”  I changed the words “you see”, which I thought were kind of corny, to “Lucy”.  I accidentally sang “Lucy” one day and decided to keep it and it also made the lyrics a little more trippy because of “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”.  Later I started second guessing myself but when I saw a Luc Besson film called “Lucy”, that pretty much sealed the deal.  I sent a copy of “she is so mysterious” to my old friend Mike Street and he said it reminded him of “They Love Each Other” by The Grateful Dead.  It’s funny because I hadn’t noticed that before but now I do.
“i wanna be with you” was written on February 12th, 2015.  One of my sculptures, “Blue Warrior”, was part of an exhibit at city hall in Boulogne Billancourt, France.  It was opening night and some local politicians were present.  We had been expecting the mayor himself, but the deputy mayor was there instead and so Isa and I were a little disappointed.  We were also tired from all the standing around and waiting because the deputy mayor arrived an hour late.  Then I was introduced to a sixteen-year-old painter who went on and on about how his painting represented the inner workings of love between a man and a woman.  I remember thinking he was way too young to know anything about that and I started to imagine how Charles Bukowski would describe the growing irritation I was feeling as the young artist kept talking about his work.  I imagined Bukowski typing after knocking off two Budweiser tall boys. When we went upstairs to see the painting, two security guards told us no one could enter that particular room until the designated time, which was in about an hour and a half.   The artist kept talking and Bukowski kept typing.   At one point he typed something about throwing a punch and I must admit I smiled though I certainly don’t condone that sort of thing.  We went back downstairs and were informed that the deputy mayor was going have her photo taken with each artist and their work, beginning with the right side of the exhibit.  There were sixty or so participants and many were chatty so I figured we were in for a long night and I wasn’t sure if Isa, Bukowski or myself had the patience for that.  About fifteen minutes later I looked at Isa and said “let’s get the hell outta here” and we took the bus home.  I headed straight for my home recording studio and out came “i wanna be with you”.  One night on my way home from work, I watched a lot of old Jimi Hendrix videos and decided I would let loose a little with the guitar solo on that track.
There’s more to tell but I will leave off here for now.  Maybe I’ll add more later. Thanks for reading.
Mark Moogalian