I-40

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Open, forward-moving, and full of quiet certainty

The fifth song on Identity is “I-40.” This track gives me a feeling of possibilities. That specific moment when uncertainty starts to lift, and knowing takes its place; knowing that something good can come from all of the difficulty. It’s the shift from hoping things will get better to quietly sensing they can. I wanted the music to capture that growing optimism, forward-moving momentum.

The song came together from voice memos I recorded while experimenting with Open G on my Yamaha acoustic guitar in mid 2025. As it started to take shape, it kept reminding me of that stretch of I-40 between Nashville and Memphis. The song starts out feeling folksy, almost country, and ends up sounding very bluesy and heavy.

“I-40” finds the protagonist in a transformative place on the album’s journey. After the introspection and heavy realizations of earlier tracks, this one is about the quiet thrill of alignment. Things are starting to move in the right direction. The doubts are still there in the periphery, but they’re fading against a growing confidence that better days aren’t just a wish anymore—they’re a destination that will soon be reached. It’s hope graduating into knowing.

Special Recording Notes

  • Tuning: Open G (D–G–D–G–B–D). This was new to me, and I loved how it led me to new ideas for melodies and chord voicings.
  • Guitars (all acoustic):
    • Yamaha – FG730S 
    • Taylor aka “Zeus” (this guitar is godly, hence the name)
    • Baby Taylor in “Nashville tuning”  (high‑strung, octave‑up strings, tuned to Open G) creating a chiming texture that floats above the mix.
  • Microphone setup: Multi‑mic setup, similar to what I used on “Us,” across all three guitars.
    • Equitec 100 for close mic’ing around the 12th fret. 
    • Matched pair of Earthworks for the room mics, to get depth and breadth.
  • Could have done better: Should have recorded the primary track (the Yamaha) to a click. I love the final version, but it was a lot of work getting everything to lock up and gel. 

Special Mixing Notes

As with “Fields,” I exported everything from Logic as individual audio tracks and brought them into Luna for the final mix. 

Here’s what I used to process each of the tracks:

  • Studer A800 (“Hi-Fi 30IPS GP9 +6 Ext”) 
  • Brainworx SSL 9000J (for tonal and eq treatment) 
  • Fairchild 670 for parallel compression (modified Default setting)
  • LA-3A on each group submaster (“Acoustic Guitar” preset)
  • UA’s Oceanway Studios in reverb mode (modified “Reverb B Guitar” preset) for each group

Here’s what I used on the mix bus:

  • Black Box (“17 Mix Bus 1” preset)
  • SSL G Bus Compressor (modified Default setting)
  • Fairchild 670 (Modified “Stereo Bus” preset)
  • LA-3A (“Mix Bus Comp -1dB GR” preset)
  • ATR-102 (modified “Default” setting)

Special Mastering Notes

  • Target LUFS: -16
  • Ozone settings:
    • Vintage Tape: “Clear Character” preset
    • Equalizer: +0.9 dB @ 12.198 kHz (Shelf, Q 24.0)
    • Imager: 0‑70Hz = 0.0, 70Hz‑3.1kHz = 16.5, 1.5kHz‑11.5kHz = 26.6, 11.5kHz‑20kHz = 36.7
    • Vintage Compressor: “Smooth Opto” preset – threshold -22.6, ratio 1.6:1, attack 28.6ms, release 95.2ms
    • Maximizer: IRC IV “Modern”, threshold -6.5 dB, ceiling -3.5 dB, Character 2.60
  • Dither: POW‑r #2 when converting from 24‑bit to 16‑bit.

Identity is now available on all streaming platforms (such as Spotify), or you can also listen to it on Bandcamp.