Streams is West OK Co-Op member Jason Smith's 2nd offering from his self proclaimed "Annual EP Project". The yearly projects consists of a 3 to 4 song EP. The songs are generally written and recorded over the winter months by Jason himself after putting his kids to bed and then retreating to the West OK Co-Op studio into the wee hours of the night.
Last years project was "The Dead Letter's Box" which was live-streamed during the recording process and can be seen HERE and listened to HERE.
This years project is called "Streams". The songs were formed around the idea of using what Jason calls "streams of consciousness" to create the lyrics. Nothing was pre-written outside of the studio before hitting the record button. Whatever ideas surfaced while recording several improv scratch tracks were kept, combed through and combined for a final product. This made writing the songs very timely and efficient while leaving a sense of mystery to the song writer himself.
Mystery to the song
"It was a vulnerable feeling to just open my mouth and unconsciously sing... knowing I was committed to leave in whatever I said. It was like a foreign person coming out of me. It was a lot of fun however to hear the finished product and then name the songs from what I thought maybe I was talking about" -Jason Paul Smith
Help from the Co-Op
On the Streams EP, Jason recorded everything himself and then had local West OK friends dub in parts which even led to new creations and melodies in the process. Floyd Hatcher, Bear Rodriguez, Ryan Houck, Sarah Rose and Jason's Wife Meredith Smith were among the contributors adding percussion, guitars, piano and vocals. The songs would be sheer garbage without these peeps contributions.
Mixing
"Im of the persuasion that the mix process is as much a musical instrument as the instruments themselves" - Jason Paul Smith
For this EP Jason chose to work with Nathan Sabatino at Hi-Dez Recording in Joshua Tree California. His mixes, production and engineering can be heard in albums by Dr. Dog, Wild Child, Head and the Heart and The Flaming Lips.
Listen and Look
The songs, along with 2017's project EP, can be heard on most digital distributors such Spotify and iTunes. You can also visit West OK Co-Op's Youtube channel.
Check out the vacation made music video for Bona Drag, shot on location in Iceland by Patrick Vinson below.