Four-D: The Winter Suite EP

Today is the official release date of Four-D: The Winter Suite, the new EP from my band Second Player Score!

The EP, which is only available digitally, consists of four songs: "The Flow," "That Escalated Quickly," "Winner Takes It All," and "Dark Night of the Soul." It will eventually, when combined with the Summer Suite, Autumn Suite, and Spring Suite (all of which have been written but are yet to be recorded), be part of the full-length 16-song album titled, naturally, Four-D - of which there will be a physical CD and, hopefully, a companion card game and novella.

Four-D is, of course, a concept album, one that tells the story of a boy who chooses to compete in an interdimensional game for the prize of a single wish, only to find that the game is much more than he bargained for. Musically, we took on the challenge of making every song on the album just four chords, after we noticed that a lot of the best songs in pop music history are constructed in exactly that fashion.

We had also noticed that "four" seems to be sort of a magic number not only for music, but for the universe in general - four-chord songs, 4/4 time signature, four elements, four seasons, four compass points, four blood types, four mathematical operations, four DNA components, four forces of nature, and so on (in some East Asian cultures, the number four is actually considered bad luck, kind of like thirteen in the West, because the word for "four" - shi - is also the word for "death." But, well, death is just a natural part of life, right?)

So, since this was our fourth album, we decided to try to incorporate as much of that as we could into it. Along with having sixteen songs divided up into four EPs of four songs each, each EP would correspond to a season of the year, with the predominant key signatures for the songs representing that particular seasonal element - F# for fire/summer, A for air/autumn, E for earth/spring, and D for winter/water (D standing for water's chemical name, dihydrogen monoxide).

Basically, it's next-level nerdiness.

But while the songs together tell an overall story, individually they're grounded in common emotions that anyone can relate to. "The Flow" is a short and speedy rocker about when you're in the zone, whether it be creative or athletic. "That Escalated Quickly" reflects the feelings you have when things are getting out of control. "Winner Takes It All" is an inspirational ska-influenced number for when your back is against the wall and you have to pull out all the stops. And "Dark Night of the Soul" is for when you feel like all is lost, but some small light at the end of the tunnel keeps you going.

Anyway, you can now find all four songs on Spotify, Apple Music, and all other streaming outlets. We're also going to be having a virtual release party TONIGHT on the Punky's Mixtape show on Twitch from 5 to 5:30pm PST, so be sure to tune in to that!