Simon Arcache, Rafael Evrard, and Clement Prunet are true students of American music. The latter two from Southern France and the former a Parisian, they have visited and lived in Hillsborough, NC and New Orleans on and off for years and traveled extensively in between the two locations. As interns at Music Maker, Simon and Rafael were tasked with organizing and cataloging our vast audio archive and when they weren’t at the office they were at their neighbors house playing music themselves. This neighbor was Music Maker partner artist Ironing Board Sam. Sam affectionately called Simon and Rafael the Sticks and, in 2014, ended up releasing this wonderfully psychedelic album. Over the years, Simon, Rafael, and Clement would usually make annual pilgrimages to the US to visit with Music Maker’s partner artists and staff and while here for their during the Summer of 2017 they took to the studio or Grotto, as we like to call it, to record this album. Their deep knowledge of the Music Maker catalog combined with the teachings of their musical mentor Ironing Board guided them through the delicate journey of adding instrumentation to some of the deepest songs in the archive.