Probing Alphnaut's "Out of Orbit"

Having already tracked the entire album and begun the process of pre-mix editing, I still didn't have a name for this collection of songs. I really wanted the name to somehow tie into "The Lunar Age", the previous EP, as the songs were all related to one another, considering they had been written at the same time. I also wanted the new name to evoke a certain sense of forward momentum, reaching outward into the unknown.

Panic began to set in as January 2010 rapidly approached, the month I had committed to passing the album over to Rhonda my PR gal. It was fall 2009 and I still had zip. Then during my first interview, set up with a freelance writer to establish my bio, serendipity struck once again. We were on the topic of the inspiration for the name Alphanaut and he had read on my Myspace page that it was loosely inspired by Space 1999. During our phone conversation he went to Wikipedia, typed in the show and began to read a loud what had been entered.

"Space: 1999 is a British science-fiction television series that ran from 1975-77. In the pilot, nuclear waste from Earth stored on the moon explodes in a catastrophic accident on 13 September 1999, knocking the moon out of its orbit and sending it and the 311 inhabitants of Moonbase Alpha hurtling uncontrollably into outer space."

When he said the words "out of it's orbit", I nearly stopped him mid-sentence. "Out of Orbit", I thought to myself, that's it! After the conversation I dashed to my computer to visit the Wikipedia entry, then listened to the songs. It seemed an obvious fit so "Out of Orbit" it was.

In the end the name wound up having more than surface relevance to me, both internally and externally. Externally, a couple songs on the album were inspired by social issues including the current global melt down, political and social divisions and religious tensions. Like everyone else, I've had my share of angst during all this craziness, and "Out of Orbit" seemed an appropriate name to reflect the current state of affairs.

Internally, I was going through my own personal turmoils. My dog Dingo's struggle with cancer, and ultimate passing during the mixing sessions, left me shattered. The very process of recording took me away from responsibilities at home and work, making things extremely stressful. Complications from surgery a year earlier coming back to haunt me, leaving me incapacitated at times. Countless things taxed me from every angle and I thought the project might never finish. Once again "Out of Orbit" seemed to sum it all up.

Now that this project has been released from my personal sphere and traveled into the real world, it's amazing how all the angst and pain that filled me during the recording process seems to have ebbed. There was certainly catharsis with "Out of Orbit", which I didn't anticipate when I first tooled the songs in 2008, though now I feel I can comfortably move forward.

As an unexpected side effect of it all, I was inspired to write a handful of new songs, which I hope will make it to the next release.