The Southwest it's mining towns, Route 66 former attractions, the mesas and canyons, all figure into the often cinematic tracks and make the region a character in the works. In particular Sitting Stubborn and Wasteland tell mad tales of wandering in the desert or abandoned boomtowns. Who are the Upper Strata? The Upper Strata is Johnny (vocals, guitars, and lyrics) and Regula (bass). The core of the songs are always based on the acoustic songs the two perform. In the studio or recording at home the songs are often expanded or further explored. Using everything from traditional drummers and percussion to metal and programmed drum sounds and loops, a varied and and sometimes whimsical final recording might result. Recorded often one song at a time with two main drum session at Chandler's SER, the songs were approached, played with and then pigeon-holed for later, part of what inspired the title of the work. About Phantastic Pigeon-Holes Twelve songs, two drummers, a few guest vocalist on Wasteland, home recordings and studio recordings - the final CD evolved more than it was produced. Ranging from layered nuanced tracks like Wasteland or Sitting Stubborn, to tunes recorded raw and live at SER soundworks like Red Skies, Sleepin' in the Graveyard and chicken wire ready Roamin' and Wanderin'. Johnny explains,We wanted some of the tracks to come off rough and live and not have a produced feel at all in the early mixes you could hear amps humming crackling room noise most of that was lost in the final mastering but some of it still comes across. We kept hearing how much better we were live and why didn't we come across on CD in the same way. So we tried to get that quality to be present on some of the tracks. Maybe a Day, Moonless Night and some of the others are about mood and atmosphere. So, that was a whole other approach but we tried to keep the album varied in that some of the stuff was what we played without any overdubs or maybe only minor ones.' Johnny elaborates on the process further, 'Really the work on Phantastic Pigeon-Holes began right around the completion of Manifest. We continued to work on material with Austin Reeves. All About Yours, Red Skies, and Roamin' and Wanderin' all took shape. They were recorded in October of 2012 along with It's All I Got, a little jam we wrote in the practice space at SER. The only time we ever did that really. Usually the songs were worked out as acoustic pieces modified for electric presentation but basically brought in whole. We would then say more like this or less like that, a little funkier etc and kind of guide Austin along. We really wanted to have him be in the songwriting process but he moved to Flagstaff and there was just no way to get together enough to stay sort of organic.' Continuing to play numerous acoustic shows and a couple with Austin, the duo began to produce songs, recorded them at home in various versions and pigeon-hole or stash them. Some would be worked into band songs and others were released in their original home recording form. So for example, Moonless Night was recorded in early May 2012 and was released as it was originally recorded. 'We spent the whole day working on that track. We would throw ideas around record something try it again, add something else, in short work in a way you could never hope to in a studio where you pay for every minute. Maybe a Day, Sitting Stubborn, Birdcage is Burning and Summer all resulted from these long all-day home sessions. It was a lot of fun, casual and creative and a throw back to our Swiss origins where we would sit and jam, record little ideas and then forget them. There were several other songs that didn't come together and it had something to do with the chemistry. If it felt forced we never got anything worth finishing, but if we took it easy, felt well, relaxed, and focused we got some good stuff I think. We would have a big breakfast, start the process go to the gym for a bit eat a big lunch, get back into it and work until late at night sometimes. The final step was to burn a disc listen on head phones,
