David Van Buskirk (graphic designer of Chrome) offers us Chrome wallpaper with which to beautify our boring computer screen desktops. David, we tip our hats in your general direction.

I mentioned this in passing in an earlier post (Interview Heaven or Hell) but I feel it warrants further close inspection and its own beloved place in the post queue.

I’m pleased to announce that I’ve written a tutorial for all 11 songs on Chrome. In the form of a podcast, it details the specifics of why I wrote each song, my thought process(es) behind them, and sheds some light on my enigmatic, ofttimes abstract way of writing. I hope it will help you decipher some meanings and shed a ray of light from my cloudy brain to yours. Go here: Rabbit Room Chrome podcast

Hey folks.

Chrome is now available for purchase on iTunes. Download to your delight, and please – if you see fit – leave nice comments/reviews so as to interest more folks. Continue to spread the word. Many thanks for the support.

‘Tis the season for interviews. There have been several of late, which I’m quite grateful for, but I understand if you can handle my interview skillz only for so long. If you’re keeping track – or having trouble keeping up – here’s the complete list of Chrome interviews so far, including those soon to be published:

Saving The Set List
Under The Radar
The Blue Indian
Laughing So As Not To Cry: A Rabbit Room Interview Part I (Host S.D. Smith)
Laughing So As Not To Cry: A Rabbit Room Interview Part II (Host S.D. Smith)
Relevant Magazine: “Storytelling with Eric Peters” (Host Chris Rule)
The Rabbit Room Chrome podcast (detailing all 11 songs)
Blake Tommey Interview (Coming soon)

I hope I’m not forgetting any. Please let me know if I’m missing any, or if you’d like to do your own interview. I work cheap.

I am eager to put together an extended Chrome Tour late this fall, in winter and spring 2009-10. And once again, I need your help. If you find yourself even mildly interested in hosting or bringing a show to your town, to your church, into your backyard, I would love to hear from you. Since 2009 continues to be whatever it is, booking a show in your area is as easy as it will probably ever be. I would much rather be out playing shows than sitting at my dinner table-desk composing interesting posts like this one. So please drop us an email and ask for the Chrome (For My Hearth) Tour: booking@ericpeters.net.

Thank you for supporting the album. I do hope you are enjoying it if you’ve already purchased a copy, and might be willing to continue spreading the word via your personal blogs, websites, Facebook stati. If you’ve already happened to write an album review, we would love to know about that.

P.S. Have you discovered the liner notes yet?

Photo courtesy: J. David Ruff

Beginning Friday 9/11/09, Under The Radar (The Best Music You’ve Never Heard) will begin airing an interview I did awhile back with these kind-hearted folks. Host, Dave Trout, is one of the good eggs within the music biz industry, and I’m thankful for people like him who allow me the chance to be heard. Another reason I enjoy Dave is because he’s willing to join me in partaking of greasy sandwiches at my favorite Nashville sandwich eatery (sandwichery?).

The UTR interview features three songs from Chrome: “Reality Came Crashing Down”, “Run Down”, and “Chrome”, as well as “Long Road To Nowhere” from my 2006 album, Scarce.

Check out the September/October 2009 issue of Relevant Magazine (the one with Jeff Tweedy of Wilco on the cover). Flip the cover page, and voila, a mighty big ad for Chrome.

Many hatfuls of thanks to Larry of Hoboken, NJ for making this happen. The man buys me primo ad space in a major magazine – two pages, full color no less – then treats me to dinner and a beer while he’s in town on release day. I, in turn, hand him a $2 copy of Chrome in return. A weak trade, if you ask me. Gifts are hard to accept, especially when you know you can’t afford an equal or adequate one in return.

Okay, release day is officially here – hallelujah! – and that can only mean one thing: a free song download for all you last-minute browsers, onlookers, gawkers and window-foggers. I’m offering the title song to you for free for a limited time, just like a McRib. This is a huge step for me because I’m a cheapskate, and I normally frown upon the giving away of music. But that’s my problem, not yours. Either way, for a limited time – two days? two weeks? I haven’t decided yet – you can have “Chrome” (the song) for nary a penny. After that, I hope you’ll go buy the album in its entirety. You can purchase it here.

“Chrome“:
This song is about an abandoned bicycle I saw in Washington DC. Its owner never returned to reclaim it, and what once was surely a brilliant spectacle is now a rusted heap, two missing tires, a stolen seat, and chained to a bike rack beneath the whims of weather. I thought of us, in all our delightful and despicable humanity, in those times when life kicks and beats the hell out of us, in our most lamentable psalmist’s state, and we wonder aloud to God, “Where are you?”, “Why have you abandoned me?”, “Are you ever coming back?”. We long to one day be made new, to shine with the brilliance we once knew so well. If you’ve ever felt like a Schwinn, this song’s for you.

“Chrome” (by Eric Peters)

At 12AM, on 8/25/09, we welcomed a bright, new, shiny Chrome into the world. We breathed a sigh of relief, we ooh’d and ahh’d, we barely slept, we gave thanks.

May you bring many hours of pleasant company to those who hear you, who read you (*NOTE to buyers: look closely for the liner notes/lyrics in the CD packaging!), may you bring beauty to this world, may your sales reach record sales (to quote Randall Goodgame), and may you not be the last of your species. Be gentle, be mild, be gracious. Remember the saint you are.

Also, for those of you who are interested, I’m currently writing a podcast for the Rabbit Room that will detail the entire album, its theme(s), shed a little light on each individual song, perhaps uncover some of the overall abstractions (what? who ME?). I imagine it as a companion piece to the overall album. I’ll let you know when the podcast is available.

Lastly, Part II of the Saving The Set List interview is up today, as well. Thanks again to Daryl for taking the time.

Daryl of Saving The Set List was gracious enough to invite me to take part in an interview in anticipation of the release of Chrome. Part I is today, Part II is tomorrow — Chrome release day!

Here’s a snippet of the interview:

StSL – Your new album, “Chrome”, comes out tomorrow! Talk a bit about your experience making this album and what it means to you.

EP – It was a long and sometimes grueling process. Because my budget was tiny by most industry standards, Ben Shive (producer) had to fit me in between other work projects he had throughout the year. We started pre-production in June 2008 at my house, and mastered the final mixes 409 days later. I originally presented 14-15 songs to Ben, and we eventually whittled that down to 11 that were the strongest (hopefully) and, in the case of this record, truest to the storyline I am trying to tell.

Read the full interview here: Saving The Set List

It’s not too late to pre-order your copy today. Or order copies in bulk at discounted prices. $10 pre-order prices are good only through tomorrow 8/25/09. Order here.