Remember When Things Were Better Tomorrow

Nostalgia can seem comforting, but I think it should be incredibly unsettling, maybe that's what I should've titled the album, says Brooklyn based baritone saxophonist, Jonah Parzen-Johnson, of his first album-lengthed collection of songs for solo saxophone and analog synthesizer. He thinks a lot about titles. I wrote these songs around the idea that the best period in my generation's lifespan was gone, but after a few nights on the road, looking people in the eye with that idea in mind, I saw how lazy I was being. It doesn't feel good to be devoting so much time to counting the ways we've failed, and ignoring the hundreds of little ways I could be fixing this mess. I've had the same conversation all over the country. It's time to stop drowning in nostalgia, and start finding ways to make our lives about repairing our broken systems. That's what I was thinking about when I was getting ready to play these songs in the studio.