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, warts and all, as outside of a few MySpace streams and burned cd’s passed around at some gigs at that time, these are 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). 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.

Volume II picks up with a few personal favorites written late fall 2005 and recorded December 2005, with, I assume some overdubs into 2006. “Your Ego Is Suffocating Me” was an attempt to write something fast after a series of “down” and reflective songs after my move to New York City (“Strange Town” - reworked for the Patches LP, “Picture Sleeve” (to remain unreleased) and “Agoraphobia Paranoia” - from Volume I). “Four Swedish Heirs” was exciting in that it had a groove and bounce that I had never explored before. It was later reworked by the original Sky Picnic incarnation. Around this time, UMD started playing with some drummer friends and I was able to perform these as I mostly envisioned live, as a full-band.
By the spring of 2006, I had a whole new set of material ready to record. “Leftover Incense” is a punkish tune that couldn’t have been performed more than a few times after recording it. (Note- these first three aforementioned songs were released on a free EP given away at shows called “Sky Picnic” (ah, the foreshadowing!), along with “Superstar”, “Jane” and “Visions” from Volume I, likely what I must have considered my best at that time). “White Plane”, “Warren” and “Going Mad” were all later adopted by Sky Picnic in highly superior forms, but mostly stayed true to the initial blueprints as heard here.
“Another Ride” originally dates to early 2004 and by 2006, at a time when I was at my peak Oasis love affair, I realized this could easily have been one of theirs, so I fixed it up some and recorded this proper demo. Upon revisiting it now, I realize it was good, but apparently not good enough to show to Sky Picnic the next year. It has since seen revival on my 2020 quarantine album (Outside the World) in far superior form. “Who Knows How It Ends” was written June 2003 in a previous band. I recorded this demo three years later, and then attempted a few times to play it with Sky Picnic around the time of our second album, but it just never came out right. As with the previous song, I am working on a new version.
Finally we have an alternate “overdubbed” version of “Visions of War/ Sounds of Peace” (the backing track is the same as the original (on Volume I), except Leah is playing bass here). In presumably early 2007, I added some extra guitar to give the song more punch, and this version was used to entice drummers to join Sky Picnic (although it never became part of the band’s repertoire as we had moved beyond this one by then). A few others finds from this late’06-early’07 stretch include “bedroom demos” of what would become Sky Picnic’s “Tea Break” and “Abbie’s Bike Ride”, but that’s a story for another day.