A brief explanation of this whole “Trains Across the Sea” endeavor:

In case you didn’t know, the title of this musical project is taken from the song of the same name by a band called Silver Jews. If you haven’t listened to them, stop reading right now and find their albums. No question, David Berman (the main force behind Silver Jews) is the reason I started writing and singing my own songs. All my favorite singers couldn’t sing either.

Three weeks before I took this full-time plunge into music, David Berman poetically announced the “Joos” were finished. As an additional twist, Berman revealed to the public that his father is Richard Berman, a D.C. based consultant and lobbyist whose company develops numerous media campaigns for multinational corporations to downplay the dangers of obesity, smoking, mad cow disease, and drunk driving, among others. David Berman states in his open letter:

“This winter I decided that the SJs were too small of a force to ever come close to undoing a millionth of all the harm he has caused.”

And that’s exactly why I started this band: it’s not that music is powerless to undo the crimes of the Richard Bermans of this country, but that music is essential to developing the good and right foundation in those who will inevitably replace them. That even if music can’t change laws, it can sure as hell change minds (which are infinitely more powerful anyway). That once music and politics are again inseparable both will be the better for it. That all Music ever was at its best was a morsel of COMMON TRUTH which rang true over the din of chords and melodies and the dancing and stomping and sweating of MOVEMENT and the simple joy of true communion between strangers. That we can argue about what SHOULD be until we’re blue in the face, but the only real answer to this mess is an educated populous who knows the right thing to do and DOES IT. And if the music of Silver Jews or Trains Across the Sea or anybody else can help eliminate the gap between what you’re currently doing and what you know you should be doing, then music won’t be pining to undo one millionth of anything; it will simply provide the soundtrack to all of us building our better future.

“But what happens, and why I think the world doesn’t fall apart, is that when there are irrational old people in charge, there is a countervailing group of young, cooperative straight arrows who are great at teamwork and are not seeking to nihilistically shut down the system. They have an investment in repair…” (David Berman)