Studio Single Launch: Preservatives

(posted by Jason)

Preservatives is now live on all streaming services! This song benefits from the talents of several collaborators, progressively building into an upbeat climax with all the players weaving together an uplifting wall of sound.

This song was the first time I had written something for a Big City Folk Song Club challenge. The challenge word was laminate, which seemed like a ridiculous idea at the time. However, the next morning I was still thinking about this and landed on the idea of things that are laminated to be preserved, like a drivers license or the photo page of a passport.

Photos are glimpses into our past, sometimes triggering nostalgia, other times regrets for paths not taken. Which ever way you feel when you look at a past photo of yourself, it can be just as profound to wonder what a future version of yourself might think looking back on today.

We all still have opportunities ahead of us. So while it is important to learn from the past, it is also important to not get stuck there.

In terms of recording, this is our broadest collaboration yet. First, we got some stellar harmony vocals from Cecilia Eve. Later we added the groovy bass work of our friend Dave Feld.

To round things out, our mixing engineer Gordon Highland added an organ track, really leaning into the Counting Crows vibe that this song carries. This was a brilliant addition, giving a unique vibe among other Bucket songs, while adding a tinge of nostalgia that’s right on theme.

The cover of this single might be my favorite. Inside the butterfly cutout, that’s a page from the yearbook for Central Dauphin East High School, 1993, when all the original members of Bucket were seniors. After stylizing and tinting the photo of the yearbook, I grafted on headshots of everyone involved in the song, tinted orange.

From top to bottom and left to right, the orange photos are: Jason, Ryan, Cecilia, Gordon, and Dave. The photos of Jason and Ryan are taken from their senior year headshots. And while it’s hard to make him out, the original bassist of Bucket (Chris Newcomer) is the photo between Jason and Ryan.


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