Bonus MP3: Matthew Gray, Delves Into The Humanity Pools With The Six Foot Saucer Pot People -- "My Little Map Of The World

Ange Fitzgerald

Matthew Gray

This week, Matthew Gray and the rest of Matthew and the Arrogant Sea are heading into the studio (with Midlake's McKenzie Smith) to record a "five or six song" EP to follow up last year's excellent Family Family Family Meets The Magic Christian. And, after the band finishes the EP, the next hurdle is the full-length follow up.

But MATAS fans won't have to wait until those projects are released to get their fix. Turns out Gray has already finished recording his solo effort, Those Nights We Burned So Brightly. And he's releasing the album under an even more elongated moniker: Matthew Gray, Delves Into The Humanity Pools With The Six Foot Saucer Pot People. Gray chose the 14-word-long name "because I wanted the name to sound like the beginning of a story and also be completely unmarketable." Mission accomplished, we'd say.

Those Nights We Burned So Brightly is current;y in the process of being mastered, but some of the un-mastered new songs are already streaming on Gray's site. And, in the coming weeks, Gray says he'll stream the whole album. For now, though, he's giving DC9 readers an exclusive mp3 for his song "My Little Map of the World," after the jump.

Bonus mp3: Matthew Gray, Delves Into The Humanity Pools With The Six Foot Saucer Pot People -- "My Little Map Of The World


Think it sounds a little, um, warbled? Well, that has to do with the way the album was recorded...

"The amazing thing about how we recorded the album is that after we finished recording it in stereo, we bounced it through an analog reel-to-reel player and then bounced it back to stereo," Gray says. "And then we mixed it. So, it's real crisp and timeless sounding. There are warbles you can hear on the mp3s, and the whole records haunted with them but I'm really proud of it."

The album is "mostly" a solo effort, Gray says, with some help from members of MATAS, as well as generous aid from Mom's Sleep Whale's Bruce Blay and Florene's Gavin Guthrie.

For now, Gray says the vinyl release will come on his Bee's Fifth Collective's label.

"We want to show people how we intend to release and promote an album," Gray says.