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1.
你在哪里 04:04
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2.
果果 02:45
3.
Arrivals & Departures 04:16
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4.
上下 04:40
5.
7 Deadly 03:02
6.
過去の君への未来からの答え 03:05
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7.
夢のしずく 03:49
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8.
Shenzhen 03:52
9.
君の声 01:49

credits

released January 8, 2015

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Mike Walker - electric and acoustic guitar, baby sittar, lyrics, vox, synths, piano, bells, bass, auxiliary percussion

Terrill Mast - drums, auxiliary percussion, e piano, piano, synths,

Mike Nardone - background vox

Daniel Lee - electric guitar, cello

Cheer Zhao - lyrics, vox

Nagi Nakayama - lyrics

Seth Engel - drums

Fino Li - lyrics, vox

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Recorded and by Seth Engel, Mike Walker & Terrill Mast

Mixed by Seth Engel & Mike Walker

Mastered by Will Killingsworth

Album Artwork By Mike Walker

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In the summer of 2014, I got a WeChat message from Fino saying that she was coming back to Chicago with a mind to record some new songs with Seth and I. This came completely out of the blue and was very exciting news for me. Fino was in China at the time and I was thrilled that she would travel half way around the world for the soul reason of making music with me. But that was Fino's style back then, spontaneous and inspired. Needless to say, I was down and I began to demo out a lot of acoustic guitar based instrumentals in preparation for her arrival.

When she arrived in Chicago we immediately got down to business writing new songs. I called up Seth and luckily was able to book some last minute recording time in a few different local studios. We had fresh material and were very excited to capitalize on this momentum and go record the new songs right away. We had a blast in the studio and after a week had come away with mixes of four beautiful new compositions that we all really loved. She hung around for another week with us in Chicago before flying back home to Shenzhen with the rough mixes. And just like that, she was gone... Again...

One of my favorite recording memories is just watching Fino get behind that condenser mic and sing her lyrics so gracefully. Fino sings in three different languages on this album and I think that her energy and talent for weaving melodies really give this album a very unique edge. Her and I really had a special chemistry and I wish that we had been able to make more music together. To me, this is kind of the Fino album and sadly, after Lifa, Fino and I would never again get the chance to work that closely on music. I sometimes wonder what could have been if we had continued to write and perform together. She is such a unique talent.

However, this album is also a poignant one because it marks a few more significant lasts and firsts.. This was the last time that Nagi and I would collaborate on a song. She wrote the lyrics to the final track "君の声" and just before Fino arrived in Chicago in the summer of 2014, Nagi had moved out of our place in River City and back to Japan where she would go on to live and work in Tokyo for a time. As for firsts, the song "上下" is the first track that Cheer and I would sing together on. We put the track together in her apartment in Chinatown and enjoyed the process so much that it sparked a creative partnership that would last for many years to come.

Upon its completion and release, I got the sense of having finally reached something that I had always hoped to one day achieve. I really loved the sound of Seth's production on these full band arrangements. they held elements of all the best things from our past work as well as a few new elements and sounded a lot cleaner than our past recordings. I especially loved how the album featured many different languages, vocalists and all of their unique perspectives. It seemed more like a story with reoccurring characters as opposed to an album from the perspective of one individual. It felt like a personal triumph that had been achieved through intense collaboration.

I had finally found the Nature's Neighbor signature sound. But the times were changing fast. College was over and I was now entering a new stage of life with Cheer by my side. I got a job at a used record store in Wicker Park and Cheer and I moved into a bigger unit in River City. Then, a few weeks after this album's release, I would end up proposing to Cheer. It was the end of an era and the dawning of a new one. It truly was an amazing time..

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Nature's Neighbor Kyoto, Japan

Nature's Neighbor is the project of song-writer Mike Walker and his friends.

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