Hailing from New York, Alexei Shishkin made a brief appearance on these pages back in 2019 around the time that Forged Artifacts released his self-titled, and by my count sixth album. Since then Alexei has kept on doing what Alexei does, making music. Something of a musical recluse and self-described as, “a label’s worst nightmare”, you’ll likely never see Alexei on a stage, he’s a man who is in the most literal sense all about the music, the creativity and the recording. The latest example of which arrived earlier this summer with his latest project, Open Door Policy.

The bulk of the project was written in that somewhat bleak midwinter when 2020 turned into 2021 and despite everyone’s hopes, nothing much changed. It was recorded over various sessions, first with Bradford Krieger at the Big Nice studio in Rhode Island, and then at various other sessions until a final lacquer of woodwinds and, “some new vocals about a woodchuck infestation” brought the project to a close last summer.

Listening to Open Door Policy, it is a record that certainly fits its name. All the tracks here have that lo-fi, Alexei Shishkin sheen, scratch beneath the production choices though and this a record where every style and influence is greeted like a long lost friend, a soiree of different ideas mingling beautifully until the wee small hours. So yes, there’s plenty of the pre-requisite indie behemoths like Galaxie 500 and David Berman, but there’s also the expansive, Neil Young-like flourish of Idk!!! and the retro Rhythm & Blues meets woodwind flourish of Rose Gold.

Celebrating the release, today Alexei is running us through the inspirations and stories that brought each of the tracks on this most thrilling of releases to life.

The Drummer

This tune (and most of the tunes on this album) started out as a little nylon-string guitar + vocal demo, which is a far cry from where it ended up. It felt perfect as an opening track in my opinion because it tonally and melodically had everything I love, and it also lacks a chorus. I love writing without a chorus. It’s probably not the best way to be writing, but man, it’s so much fun.

Having said that, the tune has two pretty concise verses, a few lines each. The first is about giving what you can, but also recognizing when it’s time to go. I think that was written after I got ghosted at some point? I don’t really recall. Second verse is composed of two separate thoughts: the first lines are about avoiding confrontation, while the second lines are about joking around in the studio and playful roasting the drummer.

Autobahn

Another “no-chorus” track. This one was me trying to rip off Pavement, not gonna lie. The “so stylish” line is basically me trying to copy Malkmus’s “I’ve got style, miles and miles”. In the initial demo, all the words were improvised, and I was pretty stoked on how they sounded together, so I decided to keep them. I wanted to use unexpected turns of phrase, ergo “scathing wedding”, “sympathetic divorce”, “walking on the ceiling”, etc. It was really an exercise in surrealism more than anything.

Ruby

I never really listened to Kenny Rogers like that, but for some reason, the day he died I sat down and wrote this one. I believe I took his famous tune “Ruby” and learned it, and then moved some of the chords around and spat this song out, naming it the same as an homage. (If you haven’t heard Kenny Rogers’ “Ruby”, I urge you to go listen to it immediately.)

This is the closest thing to a country song I’ve ever written, I think. In retrospect, I probably could’ve thrown a bridge in there, but it’s short and sweet. I think I accidentally channeled Kurt Vile on some of the vocal parts, which is chill – love him.

Rose Gold

This was me trying to write a Grateful Dead song, and I learned pretty quickly that their style isn’t in my bag. It accidentally turned into a B-list Springsteen rip-off, but it was still a fun one to work on. We took this one live a few times, and then added the woodwings after, but outside of the woodwinds I think it’s pretty live. Lyrically, I made up slightly different lyrics every time, so if you ever see it played live, I guarantee you’ll never see it played the same way twice. Overall, this song only shines because of the ensemble who played on it – shout out to Graham W. Bell, Dave Kahn, Ian Dwy, Bill Waters, Ivan Rodriguez, Eyal Sela, and Bradford Krieger for making the entire album sound better than I ever could have on my own.

Bermuda

I had gone to Bermuda earlier that year. It was amazing. I ate a bunch of fish sandwiches, drank a bunch of rum, saw some chickens running around. It was off-season so it was a bit windy and rained a little, but it was still a great time.

Again a sort of aimless, chorus-less song, and once again mostly improvised in terms of lyrics. Listening back, it sounds like it’s about aging and sheltering, but honestly, it’s about whatever you want it to be about. I had a friend write a random line that I promised to add to the album, and this is the song I added it to (“add some sugar to the bath”).

Second Glances

For better or for worse, I tend to commit to the initial idea, and this song is a great example of that. I think most people would have written three lines in a demo and then decided to form them into a full song, maybe using those three as a hook, or as a pre-chorus or something. Me? No. I just decided to lean into those three lines as the whole song. In my defense, I thought it was clever at the time: “second guesses”, “second glances”, “second chances”.

Animal Control

This track is actually where the title of the album comes from. Open Door Policy is a reference to the time when Brad and I got to the studio and the door was wide open. A woodchuck had somehow burrowed beneath the studio earlier in the week, and it was wreaking havoc for everyone, so I figured all problems lead back to the woodchuck.

Originally, “Animal Control” had lyrics that had to deal with crypto-mining schemes and NFT grifter ploys, but I figured this woodchuck invasion happening at the studio wasn’t as frozen in time as all that techno-dystopian garbage… because after all, what’s new will one day be old, but woodchucks are forever.

Chowder Powder

Another exercise in surrealism, “Chowder Powder” was my attempt at making a “garage rock”-style tune a la Ty Segall or something. Lyrically, it’s got a couple things going on: the first bit about being “flavorless” to get “on the list” is about cliques in art/music. The part about the “people in the steeple” looking down on you as a “source of evil” is pretty clearly an anti-church thing, but more so a jab at groups of people forming their own inner circles that pass judgment on anyone who is “the other”. And then the part regarding “a movie to make” is almost a non-sequitur about how I had some videos due (day job) but kept pushing the deadline.

Oh, and I think I also may have just learned about the PCP in the chowder on the set of Titanic when I wrote this. That might explain the first couple lines.

95

I always call this my “car commercial” song – every time I hear the beginning all I can think of is 0 APR for 12 months on a new Kia. As usual, I made part of this up on the fly and then tried to rip-off someone else for the other part. The part about “cut[ting] through the East Coast heat like a butter knife” is inspired by the Real Estate song “Out of Tune” where they said “see the cars on the 95 / cut through them like a sharpened knife”. My song sounds nothing like a Real Estate song, but hey, maybe it’ll end up in a car commercial one day!

Colonial House

This tune is about the house that I’ve stayed in multiple times now when I’ve gone up to Rhode Island to record albums. It’s a weird, historic, colonial house next to a BP gas station, right off the interstate. It’s got heavy haunted vibes, and in this weird hidden room on the second floor there’s this bizarre statue of some saint or something (“there is a Mother Mary”).

Living in NYC, I’m often blind to the realities of other places. I figured it would be pretty chill to walk around there, but quite literally, when I “walk[ed] out the door” of that place, I’d be walking “alongside the freeway”. It was a little off-putting. And then there’s a random throw-away reference to an old song called “Tail Of The Sun” by a band called Stroke 9 in there, too.

Idk!!!

Obviously didn’t know what to call this one, or what to write about, hence the name and lyrical content. I do remember writing this during one summer where the fireworks were particularly nuts in NYC. There were fireworks nearly every night for what must have been 8-10 weeks. It was fun at first, but then it got a little annoying. And that’s where the first line comes from.

Other than that, I stuck with the “I don’t know…” format throughout that song and – surprise! – I wrote another one that has no chorus!

Covid in G

I love ending most of my albums with an instrumental track or a slow track, and Open Door Policy is no different. This was just a random progression that I loved playing, and we decided to add a bunch of additional instrumentation over it to create a lil mood.

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Open Door Policy is out now via Candlepin Records/Rue Defense. For more information on Alexei Shishkin visit https://alexeishishkin.bandcamp.com/.