Another late start to the album. This might be my most personal work yet. In the time between Zuchinn III and Zuchinn IV, the COVID-19 pandemic has made an immeasurably negative impact on our lives. I also graduated from college. Dealt with (and am still dealing with) the self-commodification of the job search process. I became disillusioned with academia. I achieved new identities and found explanations for old feelings. None of these really could have been predicted in December 2019.

All of the above was on my mind while I got myself ready to work on Zuchinn IV. Part of me was wondering was there any reason to do this? I know very few people even listen to the albums all the way through. I know that, technically speaking, they are not very well produced nor performed. But in a way, they are the only time capsule I have of an earlier time.

Each Zuchinn album marks an important moment in my life: Zuchinn I represents 2015 me, 16 years old, still in high school (end of my sophomore year); II was during the last few months of my senior year of high school; III in 2019, during the winter break of my third year of college; And now IV, graduated from college, an adult trying to find their way in the world. Listening through these albums, I'm sure one could find deeper truths about me than even I know.

The first recorded work was Rough ∴ Final, on November 29. Soon after on December 10 was Etude, an attempt to put my new obsession with tapping out polyrhythms into something musical. Rinse and Repeat came to me out of nowhere, much like the rest, but it was the first where I came up with an idea and then immediately opened up Audacity, though as I explain later, not soon enough.

As the title suggests, the final version of the songs are also the rough, first versions. To a certain extent, the songs being poorly produced, recorded, and sounding is partially the point. In a way, this is the best representation of my thoughts: half baked ideas that will never be refined; essays written in one burst of energy; songs coming from some an unknown inspiration but could never be planned. I've tried "writing" songs -- they never get anywhere.

Rinse and Repeat is a great example. The real first rough draft was before Audacity was ever open. By the time I ran through it a couple times to get an idea of what chords sounded good and what I should say, the divine inspiration was gone and what was left was a crude idol of what got me excited to open Audacity that day.

Wasted Potential. I'll let you figure that one out. Perhaps a little too on the nose, but I've never been accused of subtlety (to be fair, I've not been accused of much ...)

Finally, Butterfly. This may be the last track, but it was the one that first came to me. In an ironic contradiction, this is one that I worked on. I practiced it, changed it, and even figured out what I Wanted from it. It is the antithesis to this entire album. Everything it is not.

I hope you listen. I don't expect you will "enjoy" it, but try to understand it. Maybe you will end up understanding me. Let me know your thoughts.

Peace be upon you.

Vasily