***Sorry about the crackles on the album. It was something we couldn't avoid. We believe it was a sample rate conversion issue. 


The sad, strange tale of Billy Oyster thus far 
Well long story short, we got the laptop that held our wav files for this project STOLEN from us. I only have these mp3 and Flac versions left from what we had. So the production is not what it could be. 

I think it's still my finest work. Look past the dirt and I think you might see something special here. Or maybe not lol. I had more fun with this project, and with the loving people I worked with on it, than I have ever had. I'm a creator; sculpting my fantasy is my dream. These crazy cats, my friends around my scene who were also musicians, helped me pull this thing together and it became this open-door policy situation. Anyone could come in and, if they had an idea for a part, they could add to it. 

My buddy Alex Luscumbe got some dynamite recording equipment from a very valued friend of ours, a seasoned fella whose been in the biz for awhile. That was the Summer of 2015. Al and I had done lots of trips together and lived at my place for awhile, until Al headed to Cambridge school of music to learn to be an engineer and producer. When he came back he contacted his buddy for some cool recording equipment, and we were off to the races. 

Al is a Virgo Wood Dog ('94), and I am a Scorpio Metal Goat ('91). We noted one time when we were high that this was the same taoist animal combo as Roger Waters (Water Goat) and David Gilmour (Fire Dog). We wanted to reflect the same creative Spirit that we imagine the Floyd also reflected, the spirit of communal creativity. 

I had most of the boys together for a week or two to rehearse the album every few days in Jordan's basement, which is where we ended up dropping off the Equipment. We could jam most of them pretty solidly, although we didn't actually play all together while recording. We mainly rehearsed as a band just so that our Drummer Jordan and I got a feel for the tunes. Once Jordan and I laid down the bass and drum tracks, it was like musical stairs from there. 

When you make songs our way, you have an idea or image for the tone of the soul of the song first. From there, you lay a sweet bass groove and rhythm track as the background that relates with that tone, and let the lyrics and trebly tapestries be the face painted layer after layer upon the foreground. The picture unfolds itself organically from the background groove. Get loose! 

Anyway, I loved this project, its our baby, and I'm eternally grateful to everyone who helped to make this project happen. Billy Oyster lives! 

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BILLY OYSTER & THE SILVER SHIP MEANING: 
The “Quiksilver” is a metaphor for alchemical mercury, a state of matter which is in flux and is subservient to the Will. The Silver Ship is simply physical matter, the vehicle of the Will/Spirit. 

The Oyster is a clam fish whose shell hides the edible, nutritious mollusk INSIDE – and sometimes, even, a valuable pearl. The Oyster is an old figure for the feminine or -yin aspect of energy, as is hinted at in Botticelli’s “The Birth of Venus” (that old Italian painting where a woman rides on an opened clam shell). In certain contexts, “the feminine” is represented by the element EARTH, which holds, sustains, and receives – like a valley which retains rainwater. 

The “yin” holds onto important (spiritual!) values, like a stubborn Mother holding her celestial family together, which gives the existentialist-materialist drama of modern life more meaning than mere selfish pleasure-seeking and fearful survivalism – like a pearl hidden inside its lifeless husk. We all contain the pearl of wisdom within. Dustin Cormier is an obsessive Plutonian artist who likes to crack through people’s shells to get at their raw, libidinal essence. He tries to embody the feminine essence – in philosophy, as well as in his erotic nature – in many ways. You can tell it in that squeaky voice of his. 

Thus has this lunar “silver ship” of musical vibrations attempted to carry a very old, occult siren signal of peace, self-realization, and personal fulfillment to today’s workaday world, like the cup that holds the Sun (Pluto!). The silver ship carries Venus to a humanity which has lost touch with its deeper values and hedonic meaning, like a silken band of erotic circles and spirals laid upon the cross-stitched quilt of rational, empirical law. 

And what of Billy? Well, Billy is a boy’s name. 

Welcome to the Age of Aquarius. Through Love the sexual poles of duality and individuality have become one; yet while we have blended in unity, in Aquarius’s opal light, we each still remain essentially what we are. 
 

released March 2, 2017 

Dustin Cormier - Bass, Acoustic and electric guitars, Mandolin, synthesizer, auxilary percussion, Vocals 
Alex Luscombe - Electric guitar, Vocals, Synthesizer, Effects pedals 
Josh Gilliland - Organs and Piano, Vocals 
Shawn Cormier - Lead Guitar 
Jack Dempster - Electric Lead and rhythm guitar 
Dakota Wylie - Electric Lead guitar 
Daniel Frederick - Electric Lead Guitar 
Dylan Behan - Bass on Track #08 (Minerva's Tune), Triangle 
Jordan Orr - Drums 
Cody D Bowles - Djimbe drum, Tablas

Engineered by Alex Luscombe in our drummer Jordan's basement (Thanks Greg and Leanne!) 

Producer: Alex Luscombe 
Executive producer: Dustin Cormier