The Zen Tapes crew just returned from a three-week tour around the Southeast/Eastern US; and on our journey, we had the pleasure of sleeping over at the home of Sam Ray, the main man behind the teen suicide and Ricky Eat Acid projects. It was a serious slumber party, in which we ate lots of pizza and played video games and talked about girls and jammed on a bunch of toy keyboards and xylophones.

During a quiet moment in the middle of the night, Sam pulled out his acoustic guitar and played us a new tune. Titled “we found two dead swans and filled their bodies with flowers”, we got the chance to experience a really somber, intimate moment unlike anything I’d experienced on the road. Being surrounded by people in van, it was tough to feel alone and truly with myself, but Sam’s bedroom crooning allowed me to be in touch with myself in a way I hadn’t felt until I returned home. I was filled with goosebumps, and I was loving, as I always do, the doo-wop vibes that Sam references with his haunting melody and major-to-minor chord changes. The song is simple, but Sam brings out some very beautiful, colorful chords when the time is right.

This track will be on a new tape called waste yrself, which is due out in a month or two. Included on the tape is a loud, live, and raw version of this same tune in true teen suicide fashion.

<3 you Sam, miss you! ^_^

mp3: teen suicide: “we found two dead swans and filled their bodies with flowers (acoustic)”