In 2022, there seemed to be plenty to worry about: an endless pandemic, accelerated global warming, normalized extremism, off-the-rails social media, hyperpolarization, etc. Midterms was meant to take square aim at all of the above.

I wote the opening track, “We Have a Winner,” after seeing a viral 2021 video of Tucker Carlson’s run-in with a fly-fishing guide named Dan Bailey in a Montana sporting-goods store. In the video, Bailey denounces the Fox News personality as “the worst human being known to mankind,” a quote that inspired the song’s chorus. The closing track, “Happy Ending,” gives musical form to the obsessive see-sawing from blind optimism (“Maybe the crazies and the snakes-in-waiting will wear out”) to deep fear (“That’s what they said...then”) that I was feeling right before the 2022 midterm elections.

Between those bookends, the other four tracks on Midterms run the gamut from a stripped-down meditation on a serious lapse in judgment (“Bob”) to a take on the armchair activism offered by corporate America (“Consumer Good”). The EP’s brightest spot, “Assorted Hits 11,” celebrates the power of art (in this case, ‘90s New Wave music specifically) to help the marginalized feel seen in a culture that would rather look the other way. And “Adam,” my cover of a bonus track on Alex G’s 2012 LP Trick about a bully's secret obsession with his victim, is a ballad driven by a mournful cello riff by Serafim Smigelskiy.

I initially enlisted Jeff Lipstein (Clem Snide) to handle percussion, and Jeff ended up mixing the album for me as well. Working with Kramer on my first two albums was an unforgettable experience—and an incredible education. Midterms was a reflection of all I learned from him, but it’s also a testament to Jeff’s formidable skills as a musician and mixer.