Statik 1

The summer of 1988, after one of his last rehearsals as keyboardist in Wept, Brian Johnston — IReverend Brainskan — had just had his wisdom teeth pulled. Through the novocaine haze he managed: “I’m dead. The next time you see me, I’ll be a different person.” He found the story amusing when I’d retell it. But there was always some truth in it.

Statik 1 was recorded the following year in defiant resistance to that kind of letting go. Named for the sound between radio stations, the EP carries too much of everything: the piano jazz of Animus, the post-catholic reverb of Resonance, colliding with early forays into indie rock. Every song has at least three outtakes, none better than the others — the sound of someone not quite ready to start anew.

Two songs stand out. Tired of Strawberry Leaves grew from a weekly commute between Charlottesville and Richmond in a borrowed Toyota with only third gear — concentration and chaos as metaphor, as Wept fell apart around it. Air Weight came from a session with Jack Sprinkle, a blind piano technician who tuned our family upright for years. Asked to replicate Monk’s thick chord voicings, he detuned the entire middle register, announced “I hate Monk,” and left for two hours. The track was cut in his absence.