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AGES AND AGES
Fine Thanks and You(Needle and Thread Records)
Add date: 3.10.2026
Release date: 3.6.2026
Links:
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A phrase like “fine thanks and you” is often the polite and truncated outer-shell of a much longer, and more complicated story we all have. We use it like a dam to keep the buildup of our thoughts from spilling out onto others, though it’s not always clear who we’re protecting – them or us? Nevertheless, there are worlds behind the wall, for those who wish to explore. And such is the case for this record.
It is painfully unsurprising to say that when the songs for Fine Thanks and You began to emerge, there was a lot of upheaval in the lives of people in this country and around the world. Meanwhile in my own personal life, I was moving through a profound loss, and the realness of this experience was creating some vivid existential sparks that the mind wanted to follow.
The sparks I chose to follow were mostly simple reflections about what it’s like to be in a body, to have agency, to have space, and to move through this window of time like a visitor. It was an exploration, and with every exploration comes imagery: heatwaves waving back at me (Hot Pavement)…sidewalks slipping off into infinity (“City Walkin’”)…painted hills, sharp like knives, cutting up the purple sky (“Wild Ride”)…up again, into the light again, open my eyes and then I realize I don’t want it to end (“Second Thoughts”). Thematically, there is searching in these songs, but never a sense of feeling lost.
Weirdly, it was during these times of channeling thoughts into songs that I found myself gravitating to big box stores with no intention of buying anything. This might seem like a non-sequitur, but these places were a calming backdrop to a mind that hadn’t been untangled yet. Something about the sterility of the big box store—their utter neutrality and aggressive dedication to the bland and basic—were a blank and empty canvas for me to cycle through ideas until a line or a hook, or even a whole song came out. I walked through their aisles for a long stretch of months, my thoughts only interrupted by the kind inquiries of the stores’ employees. “Can I help you find anything?” I want to find a state of mind I haven’t been in (“Inspiration”). “What is it you’re looking for?” I don’t know what I want, all I know is that I want it to be real and I wanna feel amazing (“Feel Amazing”). “How are you doing today?” Fine thanks and you.
Those necessary, life-giving connections extended into the recording process. I was working at that time close to Trash Treasury, a studio where Cameron Spies (Radiation City, Night Heron) records and produces. We would cross paths regularly and talk about anything and everything, including music. The more we shared our ideas, and the more time I spent listening to the records he’d worked on, the more I knew he was the right person to help us construct the sonic umbrella we all wanted to huddle under.
We recorded mostly at Trash Treasury and partly at our own studio, Friendly Ghost. In either case, the studio was like a friendly shelter for all of us (myself on guitar and vocals, Rob Oberdorfer on bass, and Evan Railton on drums) to have fun, try things, and be freaks. But through the second phase of recording, an additional connection was made that helped Fine Thanks and You reach its completed shape. I met Mira Stanley during a co-write we did over Zoom and was immediately in awe of her voice. We were initially working on our own separate material, but I asked if she would lend her vocals to this new Ages and Ages record. To my delight, she drove all the way from Nashville to make it happen. She fit into the fold so well that she has since relocated to Portland and is now a full-fledged member of the band.
From those first sparks of inspiration to the finished album, I found myself returning to a poem Dr. Clarisa Pinkola Estes, the Mexican-American writer best known for the book Women Who Run With the Wolves. The full poem is worth seeking out, but these lines in particular resonated with me deeply:
One of the most calming and powerful actions you can do to intervene in a stormy world is to stand up and show your soul. Soul on deck shines like gold in dark times. The light of the soul throws sparks, can send up flares, builds signal fires, causes proper matters to catch fire. To display the lantern of soul in shadowy times like these - to be fierce and to show mercy toward others; both are acts of immense bravery and greatest necessity. Struggling souls catch light from other souls who are fully lit and willing to show it. If you would help to calm the tumult, this is one of the strongest things you can do.
The impact of this poem is most plainly reflected in the artwork for the album that Mira and I put together, but those sparks and the heat of the flames Dr. Estes talks about are hopefully going to be seen and felt throughout each of these songs. The kinds of brief or lingering lights that will help draw us all closer to one another and allow us to make those necessary connections, be they soul deep and permanent (We could find some light and plant a perfect garden, cultivate ideas, watch their petals open, “Inspiration”) or brief and familiar. Fine thanks and you.
Photo Credit: James Rexroad Apple Music
Bandcamp
Official Website
Spotify
Tidal
YouTube
A phrase like “fine thanks and you” is often the polite and truncated outer-shell of a much longer, and more complicated story we all have. We use it like a dam to keep the buildup of our thoughts from spilling out onto others, though it’s not always clear who we’re protecting – them or us? Nevertheless, there are worlds behind the wall, for those who wish to explore. And such is the case for this record.
It is painfully unsurprising to say that when the songs for Fine Thanks and You began to emerge, there was a lot of upheaval in the lives of people in this country and around the world. Meanwhile in my own personal life, I was moving through a profound loss, and the realness of this experience was creating some vivid existential sparks that the mind wanted to follow.
The sparks I chose to follow were mostly simple reflections about what it’s like to be in a body, to have agency, to have space, and to move through this window of time like a visitor. It was an exploration, and with every exploration comes imagery: heatwaves waving back at me (Hot Pavement)…sidewalks slipping off into infinity (“City Walkin’”)…painted hills, sharp like knives, cutting up the purple sky (“Wild Ride”)…up again, into the light again, open my eyes and then I realize I don’t want it to end (“Second Thoughts”). Thematically, there is searching in these songs, but never a sense of feeling lost.
Weirdly, it was during these times of channeling thoughts into songs that I found myself gravitating to big box stores with no intention of buying anything. This might seem like a non-sequitur, but these places were a calming backdrop to a mind that hadn’t been untangled yet. Something about the sterility of the big box store—their utter neutrality and aggressive dedication to the bland and basic—were a blank and empty canvas for me to cycle through ideas until a line or a hook, or even a whole song came out. I walked through their aisles for a long stretch of months, my thoughts only interrupted by the kind inquiries of the stores’ employees. “Can I help you find anything?” I want to find a state of mind I haven’t been in (“Inspiration”). “What is it you’re looking for?” I don’t know what I want, all I know is that I want it to be real and I wanna feel amazing (“Feel Amazing”). “How are you doing today?” Fine thanks and you.
Those necessary, life-giving connections extended into the recording process. I was working at that time close to Trash Treasury, a studio where Cameron Spies (Radiation City, Night Heron) records and produces. We would cross paths regularly and talk about anything and everything, including music. The more we shared our ideas, and the more time I spent listening to the records he’d worked on, the more I knew he was the right person to help us construct the sonic umbrella we all wanted to huddle under.
We recorded mostly at Trash Treasury and partly at our own studio, Friendly Ghost. In either case, the studio was like a friendly shelter for all of us (myself on guitar and vocals, Rob Oberdorfer on bass, and Evan Railton on drums) to have fun, try things, and be freaks. But through the second phase of recording, an additional connection was made that helped Fine Thanks and You reach its completed shape. I met Mira Stanley during a co-write we did over Zoom and was immediately in awe of her voice. We were initially working on our own separate material, but I asked if she would lend her vocals to this new Ages and Ages record. To my delight, she drove all the way from Nashville to make it happen. She fit into the fold so well that she has since relocated to Portland and is now a full-fledged member of the band.
From those first sparks of inspiration to the finished album, I found myself returning to a poem Dr. Clarisa Pinkola Estes, the Mexican-American writer best known for the book Women Who Run With the Wolves. The full poem is worth seeking out, but these lines in particular resonated with me deeply:
One of the most calming and powerful actions you can do to intervene in a stormy world is to stand up and show your soul. Soul on deck shines like gold in dark times. The light of the soul throws sparks, can send up flares, builds signal fires, causes proper matters to catch fire. To display the lantern of soul in shadowy times like these - to be fierce and to show mercy toward others; both are acts of immense bravery and greatest necessity. Struggling souls catch light from other souls who are fully lit and willing to show it. If you would help to calm the tumult, this is one of the strongest things you can do.
The impact of this poem is most plainly reflected in the artwork for the album that Mira and I put together, but those sparks and the heat of the flames Dr. Estes talks about are hopefully going to be seen and felt throughout each of these songs. The kinds of brief or lingering lights that will help draw us all closer to one another and allow us to make those necessary connections, be they soul deep and permanent (We could find some light and plant a perfect garden, cultivate ideas, watch their petals open, “Inspiration”) or brief and familiar. Fine thanks and you.