As I said on the Volume One page: 'disc one is about love lost; disc two is about love found.' I was going to release them as a double album, but I prefer to think of them as more like two sides of a vinyl record, rather than my "Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness." (There have been a few brilliant double-albums in history, but a greater number of pretentious yawners - I'm talkin' to you, PLANET P…) In the days of vinyl and cassette tapes, it was easier to break up a mood, or separate two ideas. David Bowie's "Low" is a perfect example of this, where Side A was all songs, and Side B was ambient instrumentals. When you hear that same record on CD, it just seems awkward, as if the album fizzles. Most people are too lazy to program their song selections in their CD players to hear just ½ at a time. So, for my own "Low," I chose two volumes as a better format.

Actually, the packaging of these records was a struggle. Originally, it was three short discs: disc one was the ambient stuff (love sought), disc two was the pop stuff (love found), and disc three contained the 18-minute "Invisible Buildings" and the shorter variation "Theme2" (love stinks.) After wrestling with the label and my own good conscience, I thought the last disc would never be played unless the songs were included as codas on the other two. "Invisible Buildings" was not for headphones, or really thought of a 'song.' It was more of a piece of background music for while you slept.

Those of you who don't want to know thematic details of a record can skip this next paragraph; lots of people might just want to figure it out for themselves…

It is not a coincidence that disc one is love lost / sought. Disc One - one person; isolation; loneliness; sending out a search party; all that. The song titles, with two exceptions, are also 1 word each. Musical pieces also fit with songs on this second disc: 'Dictionary' / 'Unknown Language'; 'Mackintosh' (which is European for raincoat, by the way) / 'Jacket Weather'; 'Typewriter' / 'Sunspot Letters' (also the name of a Galileo treatise); 'Dirigible' / 'Plane Halo,' et cetera. Not all the titles match, but there was a purposeful connection. Also, you will note, the song titles on disc two mostly have 2 words in them. Disc Two - two people. See? I think too much about this stuff. It comes from writing the 'Audrey Green' books.

The majority of tunes on this disc are meant to make you smile. 'Nick & Lois' and 'Jacket Weather' are very 60s, very Burt Bacharach. 'Willing Accomplice' is the doin'-it song. 'Junction Box' is the moment you meet someone who just kicks you into love-gear (listen to me, I sound like Barry White - love gear? Hey, why didn't I call a song that?) 'JB' is also a thinly veiled sexual reference.

You may ask why Kelly Morelock, my drumming stalwart, did not play on this record. Well, it's for two practical reasons and one artistic reason. First, Kelly lives in Dayton, Ohio, and I live in Chicago, Illinois. It's hard enough to book time for TRAVEL records. The first two TELEGRAPH records were made before TRAVEL existed. Second, Kelly got married & is now having a kid; he's having busy year. The artistic reason is this: Rick Saines is a good drummer, and we've always wanted to work together. He plays in BONEWHEEL and also STORYTOWN, so I guess we've passed each other in the studio before, me being session dude on both those records. However, we've never actually worked together like this. He's got a really heavy style, very busy, very loud, and very hard-hitting. The tunes on SL2 were pretty saccharine; I knew that going in. They are love songs, after all. I thought it would be a good push/pull if the drums were slightly contradictory to the fluff of the material.

You don't need to be recording engineers to figure out a lot of the drums are loops. That's intentional. Rick & I recorded for a day, and I took a DAT of the tunes back and cut them into loops. Some tunes play out, but most are loops. I wanted to carry over the hypnotic quality of Disc One into Disc Two, the minimalist revolutions of patterns and melody. Loops worked well in supporting this, and Rick's good drumming made even 8-bar loops sound pretty damn fantastic. Those of you out there who are anti-loop - you think it's cheating - let me just say that there is a time & a place for looping. You have to know when to use it for it to be effective. I've worked with a lot of drum machines in my day, too. TEENAGE BLACKOUT's "Theories of Jet Propulsion" didn't have a single real drum on it. These various rhythmic devices each serve a purpose to an arranger, and I don't like to exclude something interesting just because some people call it cheating. A loop can give you a certain 'thing' that non-loops can't, and a drum machine can sound a certain way that no drummer can imitate. Conversely, there are some tunes that you just have to have a drummer. It's good as an arranger to have a big ol' trick bag.

Speaking of tricks, that's my wife Lisa making the handclaps on 'Jacket Weather.' She clapped slowly & I sped it up in a computer to give it a clip, and then added a verb to sound like 1960s Phil Spector. Worked pretty well. It's a sound I would not have gotten otherwise.

Um… what else, what else? I don't want to talk the album to death, kill the mystery. Many of you have written asking for more on the earlier records because the notes are all so short, so I'm attempting to reveal more on this later releases. Write me if you have a specific question. I'll answer just about anything. I'm no magician. But, jeez, I really can't think of anything else. Except… that I think these "Stellar Lovers" records are fabulous and everyone should buy 10 copies. Can I say that?