Ames pursues a hip coffeehouse sound, full of Jobim-like standards, mellow, melodic, and wonderfully new sounding. Includes the hits: Yellow Pill, and Oh Penelope.

PALO ALTO, California, April 2018

“For my newest project I wanted to slow life down. The past year has been filled with stress and bad politics. I wanted a soft, warm sound, what I call

Ames pursues a hip coffeehouse sound, full of Jobim-like standards, mellow, melodic, and wonderfully new sounding. Includes the hits: Yellow Pill, and Oh Penelope.

PALO ALTO, California, April 2018

“For my newest project I wanted to slow life down. The past year has been filled with stress and bad politics. I wanted a soft, warm sound, what I call “hip coffeehouse,” in direct contrast to the barrage of rap, EDM, and hip-hop that is seemingly everywhere. I returned to one of my songwriting mentors, Antonio Carlos Jobim, for inspiration, and indeed there are warm afternoons, one-finger pianos, soft acoustic guitars, and pervasive percussion – that whole samba thing. I even sing like Jobim, rough and off-key.”

“And then Yellow Pill came along midway through the project. The lead track of the EP is a one-chord dopamine stimulator, and I keep it there, in fact, I force it to stay there because of the subject matter. There are really no lyrics per se, it’s mumbled and impromptu. Opioids are bad news. And big-pharm, like McKesson, are making huge profits.”

“Well, there went my conceptual album of gentle, affectionate songs. Now the EP project starts with a bang and ends with a prayer.”

“So, I worked on unifying the whole EP with a certain sound, down to just a few instruments, coffeehouse percussion, over-lapping vocals, soft guitars. Chana and Mikaela Matthews take on more leads and more vocal involvement on this EP, mostly to help cover my aging, crackling voice. The result is a unique sound that plays through all the tracks, changing with the style or lyric."

"You have to have a determined stance to be an independent artist, to paint what you see, play what you hear, don't cater to the dollar., that sort of thing. That’s why the tattooed hand on the EP cover has six digits... mighty big things to do.”

"Enjoy. - patrick"