Trade was written during Covid lockdown when I was craving more social contact, and realizing all of the things I missed couldn't be bought or ordered online, but were traded freely between friends and family. Stories, smiles, meals together, trading songs, looking at peoples art...hanging out. I missed "doors and windows opened up wide". My favorite lyric in the song is "Don't hesitate, we all create" We all have something worthwhile to trade with each other. The chorus, "Trade me, something I need" was meant to emphasize that what we all need (human contact) is often different from what we buy and long for.  Most things offered, or thrust in my face through advertising, I definitely don't need!

I play lots of Latin American instruments, and I wanted to give this song a "dreamy" sound, so I chose the 10-stringed charango I picked up in Bolivia. I doubled up the charango and added delay to maximize the dreaminess. Doubled up my voice as well, and added an even more extreme delay during the bridge. Our music is usually a bit 'folky", so this song and whole album entitled Trade was  an experiment in the other direction, with lots of effects and also the first time I've ever used preset drum tracks. Love these!  My band is called ZunZun, which is my wife Gwynne and I, but I recorded this song on my own, in a tiny corner of a room filled with all of my musical toys, my laptop, and microphones. This was our first 'home made' recording and I absolutely had a blast. We are already halfway through our next home made album!