It was 1991 when I found and repaired my mother’s 1964 Sears folk guitar and started playing. Between 1992 and 1994, I recorded original songs in my bedroom using an Emerson dual-deck boom box. As I was encouraged into other studies, and as I got lost in a deep mental illness, I completely forgot about these sessions. It was a surprise to find this tape because I didn’t remember it existed and then -poof- there it was in the loft where I was cleaning.

Last July, I dubbed the dozen or so songs into Logic and sat on them. This morning, I took a shot at remastering to try and get rid of the hiss and gear sounds of the recording process. Some tracks came out better than others, and I haven’t made any attempts to fix gaps or other glitches.

I don’t know how to describe the vagaries of fear and confusion that come with the process of losing your mind and recovering it again three decades later, but that’s what it’s been like as Danielle has helped me back to a state of stable sanity and my memory of music. We had hit an impasse, but rediscovering my teenage self through the finding of this cassette tape has been hugely impactful on my road to recovery.

I share it as a time capsule and one of the talismans that has helped me return to everything I had inadvertently abandoned and injured.