For years we've been asked, "What kind of music do you play?" and it's always been kind of hard to answer. One day Caroline was cooking in the studio, improvising a stew based on onions, peppers, green beans, tomatoes and fish, and she was asked, "This is tasty -- what's this called?" She said, without thinking, "I call it Venice Beach Gumbo." That's when we realized what Bushtaxi's music is: a gumbo that happened to evolve in Venice - a mutation/creation.

Some of these tunes get played live, some don't. This work spans yet another evolutionary period in the Bushtaxi history - from 24 track tape-based digital, through a Mackie 32x8 board, to a Logic Audio/PC based system. Some guitars were recorded direct, some were recorded through an amp. Some drums were recorded live, using well-tuned drums and very simple miking, including boundary mikes. Some were performed on V-drums, and some were performed on a Drum KAT. All vocals were recorded more or less traditionally.

This is the first Bushtaxi CD.

These five tunes were recorded in a time when BushTaxi was playing out live while working day jobs, and the studio/rehearsal space, Dos Gatos, was experimenting with an early 4 channel Mac-based hard disk recording system featuring MIDI sequencing (Studio Vision). We eventually broke down and also bought 24 tracks of digital tape (3 TASCAM DA-88's). With the exception of 'I Hear Your Voice,' the songs reflect the live versions pretty faithfully.

We learned a lot (!) about the pitfalls of computer-based digital production, but still love digital audio.

We also learned a lot about the value of getting a take right the first time ...