Funderground is an amalgam of fun and underground, two words that best describe the hours and years of joy that this hobbyist has amassed in his basement music room, surrounded by an assortment of instruments that have found their way into his hands over the course of a lifetime. It’s one man’s two-and-a-half-plus decades-long, happy pursuit of ‘making records’ for the fun of it.

Growing up, his most revered recording artists were those who combined interesting chord changes with well-imagined production and genre-jumping. Chief among them were his beloved Beatles, and especially those studio works on which George Martin’s influence was felt.

The six-sided journey that comprise T2E’s three parts, calibre notwithstanding, very much aspire to reflect this same school of thought. The success of the exercise is left to the listener to decide but the intention is well-meant. Though the original demos span twenty-five plus years, these recordings were made in the age of COVID; the one bright side to staying home these past two years.

It’s meant to be a trip, so read into that what you will. Curling up on the couch with a decent set of headphones will improve the ride, and if you can set aside the two hours and ten or so minutes to make it through in one sitting, so much the better. Of course, taking it one leg at a time is fine, as is clicking through song by song. Click INFO to reveal liner notes and lyrics for each song.

The reader may be surprised to learn that, apart from the songwriter’s wife and kids and a couple of close pals, no one has ever heard these songs. Offering them up for strangers to sample is terrifying prospect, but so too is leaving them to wither on the vine.

The music, lyrics, arrangements, instrumental performances and voices are the efforts of a single, largely self-taught individual. Accordingly, the listener should expect a complete absence of virtuosity in any of the above.

It’s not uncommon for grown men to while away the hours in their basements building model railroads. The metaphor is apt for one who has found blissful escapism in laying down tracks on the smallest of scales, mixing in curves, switches and straightaways wherever he pleases. Thanks for taking the time to read this, and for joining in a little fun underground.

Acknowledgements
Thank you family upstairs, for your love and support, and for tiptoeing when the ‘red light’ was on. For your inspiration, thank you Johann Sebastian, John, Paul, George, George and Ringo, Brian W., Burt B., Pete T., Freddie, Randy, Colin and Andy, and of course the great Canadians Gordon, Rufus & Ron. A debt of gratitude is also owed to the developers of Garageband software, who made multitrack recording possible for those with zero aptitude for sound engineering. A final shoutout to Jimmy Webb, whose brilliant songwriter’s bible, Tunesmith, opened up the world of triads, inversions, chord substitutions and other musical unknowns. True, it was taking to heart Webb’s insistence on true rhymes making for the best lyrics that begat a lyrical dry-spell that would last two years. But he was right.