As artists, we're constantly trying to structure and portray our art in a way that we feel will convey it's deepest context and meaning. Musical compositions often have an evolution that is the result of being tweaked along the way, however there are times when musical compositions take on their own inherent form out of necessity and become something much greater and much different than what was originally conceived. This is DAAO.
Death as an Option started out as a sub three minute composition that I thought would be the right opportunity to involve good friend and immensely talented multi-instrumentalist Jared Bertheaume as a collaboration for some guitar and possibly vocals. There was a problem, though, the bed of tracks that I delivered to Jared were deemed as 'too complete.' So, he did what any frustrated artist would do, he proceeded to deconstruct a post-punk song by means of drone Moog synth, immense Nord synth bass parts, and an overall experimental electronic feel juxtaposed by 808 drums mixed in with the original drum parts.
Upon first listen of Jared's interpretation of DAAO, I certainly liked what was I hearing, but it was so disparate compared to what I had come up with that initially I just thought I would release Jared's version as a remix of DAAO. The more I listened to his composition, though, I realized what he had done; It was still very much the original composition that I had created, albeit in a slightly altered reality. The more I digested it, though, the thought of releasing as a remix not only seemed lazy but it seemed wrong. Jared had given back his creative input based on what I had given to him. Was it anywhere close to what I was expecting? Hell no! But indeed the collaboration had taken on life.
As I thought about the two parts of the collaboration more, I began to hear them together in sequence; there was a start that has taken a bit of detour from what was anticipated, what was expected, but isn't that a metaphor for what our realities often become? The great thing is that once I embraced the form that the collaboration had taken on, it lead to the realization that this piece would become a trilogy and needed a conclusion. In turn, this lead to more collaboration with Jared, and ultimately a body of work that had the vision of two artists as curators.
It worries me a bit to think what would've been lost if I had a 'stick to my guns' attiude with what the original composition was, which now I understand was simply incomplete. Often as artists we want to try and control so much and working on my music primarily as a solo artist for nearly the past two decades has certainly removed me from many aspects of collaboration, but I'm grateful that DAAO insisted upon what it would be regardless how much time I needed to figure it out.