We could have named ourselves anything. Top contenders were “metas” (ruined by Zuckerberg), “The Wrong Smoke” (can’t remember where that one came from but I guess that was the point), and “Unlikeness” (you know, like the Jorie Graham book—you are reading your contemporary poets right?). Anyway we are declu, which rhymes with “debut,” and we will NOT help you declutter your basement.

I met Rich Seymour in college. He lived on the other end of my floor one year, and if I remember correctly we met at a Linux installfest. I found out he played guitar and we hit it off. Then I found out that he can really play—not like me, I mean he can really play. We recorded a bunch of extremely free noise recordings in one of the college practice rooms. We were in touch intermittently through the years. I kept up with his great L.A. band Clark 8. When the pandemic started, I asked Rich to work on some songs with me and we got into a real groove. I’ve never cowritten as easily with anyone else. He’s like a fountain of great lyrical and melodic ideas.

declu seems to happen in fits and starts. We have a bunch of songs that are slowly coming out. We’ve only been in the same room once over the last twenty years! And it wasn’t even in a room, because we were outside! Yay pandemic!