WHERE ALL MY NIGHTMARES DWELL

NEW RELEASE FROM THE GRASSY KNOLL ARCHIVES

🔥 NEW INSTRUMENTAL EXCLUSIVE—NOW ON BANDCAMP! 🔥

Here’s a glimpse into the guts of "There’s a Place in Hell Where All My Nightmares Dwell" from EPO1. This is the raw instrumental mix I sent to Jeff Klein before he laid down his vocals. This is the song as just shadows and breath, waiting to take shape. No words, just mood. Chris Grady’s trumpet and flugelhorn float through the space like ghosts. It’s bare, it’s hypnotic, and it’s out now.

CREATING THE SONG

The song first came together during the early days of the pandemic, when everyone was still in the WTF is going on? stage. Like so many musicians at the time, we were all working remotely, sending stems back and forth. Each of us created our parts in isolation, yet the track came together naturally as everyone took the reins in their own way.

Jeff had been doing voiceover work for a yoga and meditation studio, and that influence carried over into his delivery. He brought a meditative sensibility to the first section but with a dark, sinister twist. For the second section, he recorded four different vocal takes, each with a unique approach. The melody he wove in was inspired by “The Snake Charmer” (also known as “All the Girls in France”), adding an eerie, hypnotic edge that deepened the track’s nightmarish feel.

Saxophonist Justin Bernard Williams and I were working on a different song when he played some sweet, swirling tones that I absolutely loved. I looped those two lines, panned them hard left and right, and that sound became the backbone of “There’s a Place in Hell Where All My Nightmares Dwell.”

In the final section, Chris Grady’s signature trumpet ignites the track. Just as it reaches its most intense peak, his playing takes an unexpected turn—offering a fleeting moment of calm—a contrast that feels almost like hope.

Chris Grady in his Studio in Oakland, CA

I think the track really echoes the sentiment of that time—the uncertainty, isolation, and surreal feeling that defined those months.

Here is the final EP01 version with vocals: “There’s a Place In Hell Where All My Nightmares Dwell.”

The cover art is from my moonlight snow series that I initially shot for the Moonlight Over Baltimore EP.

Thank you for reading and listening. Which is your favorite version? Thoughts?