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The first solo album by Joshua Cabe Johnson, layered with distant dark tones and catchy melodies
A sonically chill album.
Thank you to my wonderful Lady and Bride, Karen. You’ve been so supportive through this project and gave me the space and time to make it happen.❤️
My beautiful Children. You’re treasures in my heart and songs in my soul. ❤️ I hope that someday you share a song with your children.
Peace. Thank you Father, you are my peace, my substance.
Pain, without the experience of you, I wouldn’t have a lot of these songs. I hate the way you feel in me but thank you for reminding me that I’m real, and that I can live a life of thankfulness and joy through you.
Thanks to Jerome Evans for helping me on this project by hooking me up with GEAR, and always believing in me. And being there for me when I had questions about mixing and engineering methods.
Jason Starr, thanks for helping me get here brother. You always loved my songs, and I can’t wait to publish some of our old archives we worked on together back in the “bomb shelter” days in the coffee shack of Holualoa.
Kirk Wayman, for the Bass and other gear.
Fire & Bourbon, and The Nature of All Things for the epic nights of banding together as Bros, Men, Warriors, and servants of life! Love you all! Thanks for allowing me to be authentic.
My brother Hans, and big Sis-in-love, Dani, thank you for always being excited about my music.
To Dubbs, you rock! Thanks for the mentorship in my rough-n-tough years.
Mom, thank you for always being my #1 fan! I love you.
I worked late-night studio shifts every other Tuesday to start digging through some of the past recordings I had tucked away on my iPhone and in my journals.
This is a compilation of 9 songs (37 minutes) for Volume 1. It’s got a chill vibe to it with a bit of edge vocally.
Production was done in my shop on the Tascam model 12, and I ran what I could through my LA-610 Mk II while recording. Vox and Guitar pre-mixing was done with the Tascam Model 12.
I wanted a nostalgic sound for this album. I kept thinking, “What would Tom Petty, Jack Johnson, or Ben Harper do if all they had was THIS space and gear?”
Recording & Production – Joshua Cabe Johnson
Jerome Evans did the final mix. Thank God Rome offered to mix this album. I am so thankful. It wouldn’t have touched the space and width I was hoping for without his expertise.
Mixing Engineer – Jerome Evans
Thanks for Rome, he introduced me to Troy who is an exceptional Mastering engineer.
Mastering – Troy Glessner of Spectre Studios
Mixing and recording through the Tascam Model 12 had to be organized.
Each time I mixed a song group, I had to capture what settings I had for the mix before doing anything else.
Also, the takes were mostly one off’s because it wasn’t easy being in the studio alone and punching in.
The songs are pretty chill, the album is a process of pain layered with love, hope, and faith.
This song is about a place and time where the tension of the past is causing friction with the hope of tomorrow. And the process of letting go of things once lived, trusting in the season of moving forward and now.
In these lyrics, I’m breaking through the veil of space and time and entering into a place where the idea of Heaven is no longer “up there, and out there” but right within me. Connecting with my Father, the lyrics sing “a place of mystery with you…”
As a kid, I grew up in a broken home, without a dad, and with many challenges. Still, I always had a great peace inside, knowing that my “Better Love” was within me, it was home, and nothing could separate me from that love of my Father, the Ancient of Days.
If demons are real, they don’t exist in the place we call heaven.
Take me to that place…
Over hills of gold, space, and time.
My favorite song on this album, is the song Solitude. It’s a redo of the original. It still deserves a production worthy of how big of a song it could be. But I’m stoked I could kick it up another notch with electric guitars.
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I wrote this song about 18 years ago, and when I wrote it, I only had one verse. So I asked my long-time friend, Robert Vincent to help me write the another verse to Solitude.
He had a beautiful insight as to what I was reaching for in the moment and I’m so thankful for his lyrics. Roberts lyrics are verse #1.
I wrote this song in retrospect to my relationship with my brother Hans Johnson. I deeply love my brother, and we were always there for each other through our hard years of growing up.
But we’ve not been able to live near each other or see each other as much as we would like to.
The song reflects a back and forth conversation like lyrical landscape.
So this song is a reflection of the pain, sadness, and hope of a new place of solitude where we’ll live in another time sharing memories and doing life together.
I love you, bro!
What would life look like without walls in our minds, our hearts, and our souls. How would our relationships look?
This is a song about the people I’ve hurt in my life because of MY walls.
“I’ve gotta let you in to heal, and see…”
What I love about the word “heal” is that it gives hope for any soul to receive the gift of healing from our Creator.
And in the end, we’ll still need healing, because it comes in layers.
If there be one thing left in my bones, let it be you Papa God.
This song says, “The Captain of this moment wants to connect.”
A beautiful song about deep connection and nothing being able to separate me from the love of God.
I love the ending of this song. It expresses the feeling that when everything feels impossible and overwhelming, I can let go and lean into my King until all I can do is trust.
A prayer of sorrows for this country. The U.S. is going through a lot of pain and darkness right now. It’s extremely polarized and I wish we could find common ground as people in love and unity. I hope and pray it isn’t swallowed up by the oligarch’s in the meantime.
Vocals, Lyrics, Guitars, & Bass
In a pinch of time, Lij came over to throw down some quick tracks in a 4 hour session. Drums on Solitude, I Ascend, and Where Demons Die – Elijah (Lij) Johnson – thank you, son, for your amazing talent that you added to this album. I love you so much and hope to do more projects with you soon.
When I was ready to publish this album, I contacted my long-time friend, Rome and asked him about his opinion on Mixing.
He said “Life or death of a song is in the mix!” Thankfully, the final mix was done by Jerome Evans
I’m so inspired by what Rome did with this album. He’s a solid Mixing Engineer. He pulled out the space and depth I was hoping for and so much more with his added creativity.
Jerome is a genius with sound!
Update 09/2023 – Starting This Project with my T12. Yeehaw!
Update 12/23 Guitar Tracks are Mixed and Finished.
Update 02/24 – Vocals Are DONE. Cheehoo!
Update 04/24 – Drums Tracked With Elijah Johnson in a 4 hour quick session. 🙂
Update May / June / July 2024 – Took the Summer Off For Family Time.
Update 08/24 – Percussion and Bass Being Tracked.
Update 09/03/24 – BASS and Rhythm tracks are DONE!
09/03/24 – Tascam Model 12 Mixing – Ugh, I need more out of this T12, LOL!
09/04/24 – Update – Jerome Evans Will Be Doing The Final Mix Down – I’m Stoked!
09/12/24 Update – I’ve handed the tracks over to Jerome! Yeehaw!
09/18/24 Update – Jerome has already mixed 2 songs, they sound AMAZING!!!
09/24/24 Update – One Year since starting this project.
09/26/24 We have 7 out of 9 songs mixed, and we are in the final stages of publishing this project. I’m so stoked! And already thinking about tracking The Archives Vol 2.
10/06/24 Update – Live mixing session with Jerome last night. Awesome! 98% there!
10/16/24 Update – We are done with the mixes! They sound amazing… Yeeeehaw!!!
10/17/24 – The Tracks have been handed over to Troy, for Mastering.
10/21/24 Mastering is done! And, wow!
10/22/24 – Referencing the mastering tracks – phone, desktop, earbuds, truck, etc…
10/23/24 – Mastering revisions submitted.
10/24/24 – Mastering is solid! Time to publish. Woot woot! Thanks, Troy, and Jerome, you rock!
10/26/24 – I’ve decided to wait to publish this album until after the elections.
Release date will be November 8th 2024