“I don’t want to live in your conformance.”

I had a friend named Ryan who was always up for mayhem. Typically drunken. We skated together a lot in the early 90’s. He had a kid brother named Brandon who didn’t skate much, but exerted the same energy with dual tape decks, his guitar and whatever else was lying around his bedroom in his parent’s Kendall townhouse in Miami, Florida.

His explorations ran the gamut. From teen-angst/devotional ballads, to goofy instrumental hip-hop-de-blanc, wailing distorto-noise, and minimally accompanied field recordings. I remember them impacting me almost as much as they do now. It all swells with nostalgia, not just because it was so long ago that these recordings were made but because of the time in Brandon’s life he made them. A time which he communicated with youthful and heartfelt ease.

Perfectly flawed. Familiar, yet signature Sparling.

I ran a short-lived cassette label called TIMEKILL Recordings at the time, and worked with Brandon to gather enough work to fill a 90 minute tape. That part was easy. Life got heavy and TIMEKILL collapsed under the weight along with it’s third release.

Over a decade later, in one of those decisive moments of synchronicity, I found the cassettes and photos we’d planned on using for the j-card while digging through separate boxes at nearly the same time. It took it as a sign.

14 years in the making, Four Years of High School in My Room is the perfect first release to get things moving and start killing time again.

With only a few exceptions, track names for this collection have long-since been forgotten or never existed in the first place. I don’t know where Brandon is now, but I hope this finds him well. 

Say hello and let me know, B.

— R.Bridges

DOWNLOAD: Brandon Sparling / Four Years of High School in My Room