A note from Dan Sommers regarding Hotpipes & Dust:

There used to be four of us, and the last album we put out was 2008's Future Bolt. People seemed to like us and we played a lot. We had a few placements, mostly for "The Future is Where We Belong"- Gossip Girl, AMC, some other stuff. Justin and Dave moved out of town to get on with their lives, but Jon and I really liked some of the new songs we had.

Gradually, over the course of maybe two years, we went in with Jeremy at Battle Tapes and finished some of those songs, wrote some new ones, reworked some things we had been playing live. There are some contributions from locals (D. Schroader, Katie Studley, Larissa Maestro, Dave Paulson, Josh Stafford, some others for gang vocals), but we mostly did this with the two of us and Jeremy. Justin and Dave are on a couple songs we had originally planned for a 7".

We went a little overboard with it. As old Hotpipes, I was the drummer, and would occasionally overdub some horns or something. This was really my first chance to build things up from nothing and play whatever I wanted, so I did. Jeremy did some crazy things, especially on "Only the Young" and "The Bear & The Astronaut". Jon's voice is powerful and heartbreaking- he's in top form here. Nothing is over four minutes, and there's a lot crammed into the instrumentation, but they're still very simple songs. Jeremy's done a lot of amazing albums, but this is my favorite-sounding thing of his.

I did the artwork with my very minimal experience. Like much of this album, what started as a simple idea quickly turned into an overly-ambitious long term project. Plus we're all record collectors and appreciate every little touch and upgrade, so a cover turned into a gatefold, then added printed innersleeves. The jackets are also old school tip-on and foil numbered, and the vinyl is a custom red and comes with a download. I wanted every aspect of this to be what I listen and look for when I buy a record.