In 2005 and 2006, I recorded and performed under the moniker The Universal Mind Decoder (hat tip to the Byrds), sometimes abbreviated to UMD, as I felt weird being “Chris Sherman”. The “band” name gave me some personality, and up to that point I really only knew band structure; performing solo had way too many singer-songwriter connotations in my mind. Anyhow, I amassed around 40 songs in what I would describe as a blurry stretch of life. All of this material was me ironing out how songwriting kind of works, while also getting musically proficient across a few instruments, and most importantly, forming the embryo for what become Sky Picnic.
Working on a proper release of the material now was partially a happy accident of discovering all of these files on my computer during the pandemic. Since this perfectly ties into the 15th anniversary, it only felt right to let them see the light of day, as these are mostly unheard.
From a technical standpoint, while I was able to clean these up greatly, I do not have the original files to actually remix them (or in many cases, actually mix them). There are certainly wrong notes, some strained vocals and way too much tambourine, but there is a certain charm in hearing me as a relative kid, performing songs with warts and all, and no real musical pretensions (that wouldn’t kick in until a few years later- I kid). The artwork (done in collaboration with Leah Cinnamon, but, it was mostly her creation) dates to 2005 when I released two (very primitive) EP’s worth of my early 2005 material. Both images are being re-purposed here to fit (or perhaps, they inspired?) the two volumes.

“South For The Winter” and “Waiting For you Again” both originally date from a previous band, written in the fall of 2003 when I had just gotten a 12-string Rickenbacker after falling in love with the Byrds. Both of these recordings date from April 2005. They’re both pretty good jangly-pop songs in retrospect and were staples of my sets back then. “(You Can) Never Die In Dreams” was an attempt to write on Oasis-type ballad (right down to the Liam-isms on vocals), which came about in the summer of 2004, and was recorded in August 2005. It never saw much (if any) live action, but upon doing this archive project, I realized I was onto something here and repurposed this chord progression for Hanford Reach’s 2020 single “Sitting On the Edge of the World”. Funny how these things work.
“She’s A Superstar” (another example of name appropriation, this one courtesy of the Verve) might be one of my best songs, if nothing else, the one that showed me that I was capable of writing. Again, a jangly-Byrds vibe here, this one was a live staple of solo sets, of Universal Mind Decoder shows, and subsequently played by the original incarnation of Sky Picnic. The issue with determining this history of this recording (should anyone be interested in such origins) is tricky; the basic track was recorded in April 2005 (the one which saw release on “UMD” burned cd’s) onto which I sang new, stronger vocals in 2006. Also, the bass heard here is not the Ric 4003 I was using during these sessions but Leah’s violin bass, which would mean I wiped the original bass track and overdubs were done with hers. The question then turns into which of us is playing the part…? Why would I play the same part again though, meaning it might very well be Leah. Either way, that overdub would’ve been sometime in 2006 when we were playing out live and I would’ve wanted more non-Chris representation on the songs, but we’ll never know.
The following three songs all date from sessions in August 2005. “Universal Mind Decoder” grew into the beloved monster of a jam song for Sky Picnic, but here it is in its humble beginnings. I think at this time I was calling it “A Cupful of Smoke”. “Unsent Letters to Jane” was just a simple pop song sung in a terrible British accent impression that hung around until the early days of Sky Picnic. I always had a soft spot for it, but that is admittedly the main riff to “Cinnamon Girl”, so thanks Neil! “Visions of War/ Sounds of Peace” was the other highlight of this era. This recording doesn’t capture the power of this one, but it was a song written about being sent off to war and was a big breakthrough as a writer. In the spirit of keeping it raw, I tried to “fake” a live recording by keeping it all one take. I also don’t have proof outside of my memory, but that seems to be Leah on the main bass (the fuzz bass solo was certainly mine). Note- these previous two songs (along with Superstar) were released on a free EP given away at shows in 2006 called “Sky Picnic” (ah, the foreshadowing!), along with “Swedish”, “Your Ego” and “Leftover” from Volume II, likely what I must have considered my best at that time)
This collection closes with a song I’d forgotten about completely called “Agoraphobia Paranoia”. This one dates from December 2005 and was one of the first songs I wrote upon moving to New York. It was definitely the start of writing with a bit of a “newer” sound as I started to get exposed to different music at that time and not just taking inspiration from the classics (and a nod of gratitude to Dan Kendall for the "empty boxes on parade" line). And with that, it’s time for you to jump over to Volume II to see where the journey continues.