As you will be reminded - Austin, Texas' The Channel make pitch perfect tunes about all that creeps inside and throughout our gentle minds. 2004's Personalized LP on c-side records started my examination, and this years double LP Tales From the Two Hill Heart / Sibylline Machine makes damn good on promises of better things.

Founding member Colby Pennington - who has also released a Pollard-sized mound of releases under the personality Driftin' Luke - took the time to give us one perspective on the new albums, Texas as a normal place and things that can - and will - go wrong in your minds eye.

{the voice of confusion:} this damn fine tale of the grasshopper ( "olden days" [MP3] ) - was it inspired by actual events, a dream maybe?  love it!

{Colby:} the grasshopper never ate my strings and was never in my dreams. however, your question is good because it gets down to the root of why the grasshopper and bird are there. it is based on an animal dream where a rabbit had the face of a man and did annoying things to me and to those I loved. his name was sushi. this dream has stayed with me, (has been representative of depersonalization) and has generally drawn a wedge between me and animals in general. in olden days, I try to make peace with my supposed enemies, animals (the grasshopper, the bird), and time. seeing things from their perspective helps. in fact, in this tale I have become the midnight bird's sushi. I have fought against time, I have wounded the midnight bird's tiny wing, yet all this time I thought it was they who were doing the hurting.

tracing back for a moment to the previous album - the liner notes [clicking the link severely recommended - if not for just this once.] detailing depersonalization (and an underlying theme of the album) hit home for my broken head [I suffer from the same].  on a personal note, has that crippling condition bettered itself?

I have not seen her in a while, my friend. at least I can see that it's much less frequent. again, maybe depersonalization is just a supposed enemy, and maybe she's not really out to hurt. maybe this perspective has helped out. how frequent are your episodes?

[ I think I now live in a full depersonalized state, and have minor episodes of normality every other month.]

a double album is no simple endeavor for any band [to that, a set that comes off as charming as these do] - do any of you folks have a favorite double album from the past that serves (or served) as inspiration for this one?

there are 2 kinds of double albums: 1) the wall/white album cohesive epic style 2) the "2-for-1" columbia records budget saver The new Channel release is one that falls in the latter category, due to monetary restrictions and song catalog plethora's. In that vein, double albums that have inspired at least some Channel parts would include the Harry Nilsson reissue of "Aerial Ballet/Pandemonium Shadow Show/Aerial Pandemonium Ballet", the Beach Boys reissue of "Today/Summer Days (and Summer Nights), Marty Robbins' "Gunfighter Ballads/More Gunfighter Ballads" and Lefty Frizell's "Country Favorites/Saginaw, Michigan"

"Five songwriters, siblings, and friends" states the listings that surround this albums entrance - and it is said that you have many more (hundreds) written [possibly recorded??].  I guess I'd like to ask how the process works out - words then music... music then words... ?  Same for Jamie - crafter of the 2nd discs core "Sibylline Machine". [bless the contrast of the 2 records!]

I really can't speak for the wild child or for the rest of the young guns, but my songwriting process changes depending on my circumstances. at the time of two hill heart, I had a monotonous day job that left me plenty of space to write, so all of those songs were lyrics first, though some were accompanied with a vague tune in mind. two hill particularly was mostly about the meaning of the songs and less about just writing a good song.

How is Texas doing?

In Texas, they have tall poofy hair, they have pictures on business cards that could fry an egg on my ego, they have sweltering summer heat with party animals gone wild and the rest of us are fighting off the lackadaisical spirit of the sun, trying to keep it simple and work another day. The rivers are pretty low right now, and the fish aren't biting me. Kinky Friedman is running for governor and the state's library is hiding the governor's records in the archives. Refugees from the storm are setting up extended camps and going into business, hiring youthful female assistants, and splurging on anecdotes to run by inexperienced office mates. Truth and kindness are waiting on every doorstep to be picked up but the volumes are too high on the televisions and they aren't hearing the knock at the door. somewhere on an old stage tonight, the televisions are turning off and the channel is coming on.

where, oh where, is this 'mountain [of tears]' one can grasp a new heart?  not America, yes...?

the mountain of the mind, where a heart is willing to break and bend. american mountains could be secret entrances into the mind. I wouldn't rule those out. (e.g. the mountains of tennessee). the morning light, the lily white, the fish that warble, the birds that sweetly sing are all saying the same thing. The mountain of tears is in the heart of God's creation.