Inside ‘High Up On The Wheel Well’
Before releasing High Up On The Wheel Well, phoneswithchords spent years reflecting on the memories that shaped him. We caught up with him to talk about therapy, childhood summers, and why this deeply personal album is rooted in gratitude rather than nostalgia.
What came first: the idea for an album about your childhood, or the memories themselves?
Oh, the memories definitely came first. I didn’t start writing songs until I was 16. That was when I got a guitar. It’s crazy how instantly I wanted to make up songs rather than learn covers. So, the idea of this album came much later. Not totally sure when it showed up in my consciousness, but it has been there for a while. I think the creative ideas that are stubborn and stick around are the ones that are trying to tell you something. In a sense, making this album was an exercise in listening to myself. Now that the album is out I feel so much joy. It all feels very full circle in a way that’s hard to explain.
You’re quite open with your experience in therapy. How much of this record has to do with sitting in your discomfort and calming your inner child?
Yeh, I feel like therapy has been such a lifeline for me these last couple of years. There was certainly some discomfort in revisiting these memories from childhood, but it didn’t feel like I was calming my inner child. It felt more like a sweet reunion. I really think a main purpose of life is to rediscover who you were in the beginning. In growing up, “our child” gets buried, it goes inner. It’s been very rewarding to find this part of me and to let it play a main role again.
A lot of albums that look back on childhood focus on loss or regret. High Up On The Wheel Well feels different, and there's an authentic sense of gratitude running through it. Did you know from the beginning that was the story you wanted to tell?
Well, the original idea years ago was to make an album consisting of stories from my family. I wrote a handful of songs in this vein, but I couldn’t really focus. I realized that I was losing focus because I was trying to tell someone else’s story. My grandfather was in WWII and I had wanted to tell some of his war stories along with other family stories I had heard over the years. When I switched my perspective to writing songs from what I experienced as a kid the vision for the album really broke through to me. There was definitely some tension because I was honing in on all the good moments from my upbringing. For a while that felt almost dishonest, but I kept reminding myself that you can only write what you know. I’m really glad a sense of gratitude comes shining through. That’s for sure how I felt in making the album.
Most of your greatest memories happened during the summers. Is there a darker album that could be written about the other seasons?
Oooh. That’s a great question. I have certainly had really dark moments in my life. My previous album piecemeal was me grappling with the dark chaos of the world. I felt like with that record I was getting really close to the abyss, peering down into the void. It was written very quickly in the Winter of 2025 and listening back it sounds to me like I was really reaching for something. A lot of the lyrics from that album are cryptic mainly because that’s how I felt during that time. Nothing felt clear or certain. The world seemed so fragile and in many ways nothing has changed except my perspective. I really think sometimes we have to face the darkness in order to find some spark of light. It is risky and pretty painful, but necessary.
“Summer of ’91 (America)” comes smack in the middle of the record and is such a highlight on the album. It’s the true story of an epic road trip my family and I went on one Summer. I got to see so much of America on that trip and I’m really pleased with how the song turned out.
The first track, "Born," makes it pretty clear that listeners should consume the entire record, beginning to end. Did this liberate you from trying to produce singles?
Yes, I don’t think I ever once thought about singles for this album. I always knew I wanted it to be a complete body of work, a journey from track 1. It’s always been in the back of my mind that this record is a monument. I see every album as such, but this one in particular feels like a giant, fixed stone that ain’t going anywhere. People may find their way in through a specific song, but it is the full album that stands tall. I think in little ways people will be discovering this record for years to come especially when the Summer season rolls around. I think it’s a pretty spot on Summer record, which makes me really happy.
You call this album "the soundtrack to the movie I've been fortunate enough to live." Was there one memory that surprised you in becoming more meaningful than it initially seemed?
The song “Winter In Late June” has become more and more profound to me since I wrote it. It is actually the first song my co-producer (Nick Webber) and I ever worked on. It really laid out the road map for the album. The song tells of an experience I had as a boy when a hail storm blew up and we had to take shelter in the pecan shed on my Grandparent’s farm. There is just so much wonder in that song and I really feel like it encapsulates who I was as a boy and even now. Little moments like that really impacted me. I have always been an observer, storing up scenes in my mind. I think it says a lot that this song feels like the absolute climax of the album. The memory on paper doesn’t seem that profound, but to me, as a curious, emotional kid, it was huge. I wanted the music on that song to feel just as large. It’s like we made a tiny vignette the whole of the story. In many ways it is.
Your Bandcamp notes end by saying that you hope these songs bring listeners comfort and maybe even help set them free. What artist or album has done that for you?
This year in particular S.G. Goodman’s Planting By The Signs was a real touchstone for me. It really gave me permission to dig into these memories and own my own experience. There is something about S.G.’s writing that is so personal and completely unique. I’m such a fan.