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THE GRAND UNDOING |
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Five long years have come and gone and now in early 2026 the fifth Grand Undoing album Songs For The Sleeping takes its place among this decade’s best. Spotlighting nine newly minted songs, Songs For The Sleeping is an all-around superb offering featuring a revolving cast of musicians that charts its course through the expertise of the Grand Undoing’s songwriter, guitarist and producer Seth Goodman. Ten musicians that appear here back Seth to the max. Originally envisaged in early 2025 by way of an Enneagram reference relating to the number 9, Songs For The Sleeping refashions the essence of everything that is great about The Grand Undoing and achieves lift-off by way of a pop song cycle that cleverly rivals their earlier albums. Assessing the album tracks from start to finish, Songs For The Sleeping kicks things off with “Sing A New Morning”, a track that checks in among the catchiest power power-pop tunes in the Grand Undoing repertoire. That magisterial side of the Grand Undoing is fully divulged on the pop-rock pomp of “I’m Being Called”. “Creature” revels in an existential love of love. With its spoken word parts, the song conjures eerie goth-rock imagery that speaks of loving a creature and overall it’s also a stunning showcase for Goodman’s penetrating electric guitar expertise. “The Knowing” moves its audience past it all on a carpet of strummed guitars and pedal steel Americana. “Black Rivers” conjures dark, unconscious streams of life. Hidden feelings come to the fore on the “The Sun Is Stranger”, a track filled with psychedelic introspection that would bring a tear to the eyes of our country’s now late greatest American pop maestro Brian Wilson. “Aventurine” invokes the magic of crystals. Dark dreams thrive on “Savior” and “Now I’m Going Home”, two tracks that slow dance their way into our collective pop and prog psyche. Like a modern day musical bandleader and repertoire director Seth Goodman moves The Grant Undoing further onwards with a cast of gifted musicians that helps to transport these vital new songs onto the music map big time. A lot has gone down and under the bridge since we were all In A Vigil State just a short lifetime ago and now Songs For The Sleeping arrives as a most welcome sonic relief from The Grand Undoing.
mwe3.com presents the 2026 interview with
Seth Goodman: Good, Thanks Robert! I ended up writing more than I ever had before during the pandemic. And I was fortunate to be able to work through a lot of that material with some friends who ended up being the primary contributors to the record. Ted Powers, who also helped produce the record with me, and co-wrote a few songs, was key in helping with the entire process, as was Keith Jacques. On this record, for the first time, it really started to feel like a band. Both the writing and the pre-production took a bit longer than the previous records, but I think that the extra time invested made this the strongest Grand Undoing album yet. We also did some tracking in Katonah, New York with Pete Donnelly from the Figgs, who mixed the record. Pete’s an old friend and we had been talking about doing some recording for years. He’s fantastic in the studio and he lent some great energy to the record. And another old friend, Pete Hayes, also from the Figgs, also joined in on percussion and some background vocals. Pete and I were in a high school band together and I’ve been wanting to get him on a Grand Undoing record forever. There is a link between In A Vigil State and the current one. They both deal primarily in in-between states, and consequently they both have a feeling of reaching for resolution. On Vigil State I was still a bit conscious of making the most dynamic record that I could. On the new one, I had passed through that stage, and instead I was just thinking solely in terms of the quality of the material. And I had lots of songs to choose from, where on previous records I would only finish songs that I was totally sold on, so far fewer got done. And although I didn’t intend to write a thematically cohesive group of songs, it just worked out that way. Your enneagram reference: The Enneagram of Personality, or simply the Enneagram, is a pseudoscientific model of the human psyche which is principally understood and taught as a typology of nine interconnected personality types.
Keith Buffo and I worked on the concept. And he did the jacket design. I’ve been very lucky to have Keith lend his eye and creative sensibility to most of the Grand Undoing releases. The cover art is influenced by Maxfield Parish, an amazing New Hampshire painter and illustrator from the late 1800’s and earlier 1900’s. MWE3: “Sing A New Morning” starts Songs For The Sleeping and it’s among the most upbeat Grand Undoing tracks on the new album and possibly in your entire repertoire. I love the fuzzed-out electric guitar sound. Also, tell us about the heavy drums and who is playing with you on “Sing A New Morning”. Tell us about the backing vocals and who is playing drums on the album? Seth: A few years back, I recorded a bunch of drum parts with long-time collaborator Dave Westner. He’s a fantastic drummer and engineer that’s worked on almost everything that I’ve recorded. And one of those tracks became the foundation for this song. Ted and Keith sang those backing vocals together in the studio. I played the bass, guitar, and keys on that one. Most of the tracks are from the original demo which had a really upbeat and sparkly vibe to it, which would have been tough to improve upon, so we didn’t even try. MWE3: “I’m Being Called” is a catchy pop-rock track. There’s no guitar solo but the mellotron and Chamberlin are mentioned as key instruments on the track. How did you come up with the title and the concept and who’s playing the keys and drums? Again, the backing vocals are very effective. Seth: “I’m Being Called” deals with that point of critical mass, where staying in the same place, physically, spiritually, or emotionally, is just no longer an option for whatever reason. A bit of a waking up if you will. Dave Westner also tracked these drums before there was even a song. Ted and Keith again sang those great backing vocals in the studio. I played the guitars, bass, and keys on that one too. MWE3: How did you come up with “Creature”? Who is the creature? I was thinking sci-fi. The man who fell in love with an alien being? Also tell us the guitar solo, is that you playing the solo, what guitars and effects are you using on “Creature”? And the backing vocals, which are great. Is “Creature” a lonely song? I like the light at the back of the house reference what does it imply? Plus the two spoken word intros are effective. How about the “trick to tweak you out” reference? And the mellotron keyboards are great too. Seth: “Creature” touches on a lot of things. It was in part inspired by some pandemic cats that my partner Sara and I adopted, Phil and Don. They spent a tremendous amount of time on top of me, mostly in a good way. It was also written during the winter in a summer vacation community, which is particularly desolate in the off-season, hence the “lonely light”. And the “trick” to tweak you out bit is a reference from one of my favorite movies, Paolo Sorrentino’s The Great Beauty, where the main character comes to understand and accept that most of our energies go into tricks, symbols, or approximations of more meaningful truths, rather than the truths themselves. The first guitar solo is me, playing my Tele through a Boss Metal Zone pedal, a real secret weapon. And Kurt Johnson, yet another secret weapon, played the second solo on the pedal steel. Kurt is from Rochester and plays with a band called Mikaela Davis and Southern Star. He’s a very gifted pedal steel, guitar, and keyboard player. Ted and Keith cut the background vocals on one mic in the studio, to great effect.
Seth: Dave has lived in the Boston area for several decades now. I met him years ago at a gig and have wanted to do some tracking with him ever since. He’s a great guy and an amazing player with countless unparalleled war stories. MWE3: What was the ultimate inspiration behind “The Knowing”? Seth: “The Knowing” is a fatalistic dirge about the lonely awareness of our own impermanence. MWE3: The song “Black Rivers” is a great rocking song with a pretty amazing last minute. You have a line about you wishing “the old folks could have stayed”. What’s the metaphor in the song? Is the black river the endless, unconscious flow of life and how we are insignificant players in the world, yet you still believe in “the man in sky”? I too miss the old folks at home mentioned in the 1851 Stephen Foster song. Seth: Nice catch with the “Old Folks”! That was very much borrowed from the Stephen Foster song, which was one of my father’s favorites. I’ve been writing about being the last man standing from my family since I’ve been recording records. And this song is very much part of that. “Black Rivers” is really a metaphor for the flow of life and death that delivers us and invariably sweeps us away. By the way, the “man in the sky” refers to that flow itself, rather than the archetypical old man with a white beard. The cinematic coda was lots of fun to track. MWE3: “The Sun Is Stranger” is kind of psychedelic introspection and for some reason it reminds me of Brian Wilson. The song has some excellent key changes; especially when moving from the verses to the chorus. Seth: This song is still a bit of a mystery, even to me. It definitely relates to how connected we all are and how unbelievable and unlikely the twists and turns of our lives can be. It does go from a minor key in the verse to a major key in the chorus. Ted helped to write this one and moved the verse into a 5/4 time signature which gives it a really interesting feel. It’s the only place on the record with a funny time signature like that. MWE3: What does the song “Aventurine” signify? I know the quartz crystal but is there another meaning in the song? I think the song has a kind of bossa nova, and relaxed feel to it. The guitar work is very low-key. Also say something about your Dad working with quartz crystals.
“Aventurine” is a study in both how big and how small we are at the same time. There’s a bit of floating in helplessness, or disconnecting from one’s own power in lines like “The sergeant at arms is wasted and sleeping” (very enneagram nine). Standing in stark contrast, are lines that allude to our infiniteness like “We’ve been in the world for a hundred million years” and “Form is the form of the formless”. Juxtaposing both ends of that spectrum to another very groovy Dave Westner drumbeat, that had been tracked several years previously brought the whole song together in a really interesting way. MWE3: Is “Savior” kind of Dylan-esque? The lyrics are a bit disconcerting. Is it possible to put your life in the hands of a savior? Tell us about the repeated line “He’s all, he’s all, I’m gone”. It does have a 12-bar blues feel to it. Who is playing with you on that track? The drum sound is great. There is a long outro on “Savior”. Is that you on guitar? Seth: “Savior” is a bit Dylan-ish, in its biting tone and exaggerated imagery. Again, there’s lots of enneagram number nine energy here; waiting for a savior, disconnecting from your own power, thus the “He’s all, he’s all, I’m gone” line. In the context of the song, I’m casting myself as my own savior. Unfortunately, instead of doing the difficult work of actually arriving, I'm simply finding consolation in the empty promise of arriving, again and again. Kurt played the lead guitar parts on the outro and the intro of that one. Keith and I also played electric guitar parts. I played the acoustics, the bass and the piano parts. Dave Westner engineered most of the drum sounds on the record, in addition to playing the drums on many of the songs, including this one. He’s gets an amazing 1970’s drum tone. MWE3: “Now I’m Going Home” has a slow, circular feel to it. A chance to slow down? What does home mean to you in that song? Once again Dave Mattacks adds in some tasteful drumming. Is there an easy message to discern from that song? The ending is also very circular with its repeated chord patterns. Seth: “Home” can mean a lot of things to a lot of people. I’m casting it primarily as relating to one’s relationship with one’s self. In the context of the song, there’s again more enneagram number nine energy going on. Nines have a bad habit of allowing the complex structures of their lives to be built around them by others without their own participation. Consequently, they often wake up to find that having taken the path of least resistance, their lives may have taken shape with surprisingly little of their own input. To go home is to wake up and fully participate in the parameters of your own life.
Seth: We’ve got some videos and singles coming out early in the new year, before the full album. And Hemifrån will again be doing the European press. The official release date is March 14, 2026 and we’ve put together a great live band to play the record release party in Boston on March 15, 2006 at the Lilypad.
SONGS FOR THE SLEEPING Produced by Seth Goodman and Ted Powers Songs For The Sleeping song lyrics: SING A NEW MORNING There’s a sound on the sound on the sound and it’s melting the time away You sing a new morning In a dream of a dream of a dream I was trapped in my truth again
I’M BEING CALLED I’m Being Called I’m Being called I can’t wait until tomorrow I’m being called I’m being called it’s in the woods
CREATURE Creature, love me, The day stood in the way of the night So if you see a small light The sea is just beyond the marsh So if you hear me calling THE KNOWING The dreams of the children
BLACK RIVERS I’m the sun, I’m the servant, I’m the stranger on the town Black rivers are rolling out, carrying us away, I’m wishing the old folks could have stayed I’m a soul on a circle, I believe in the man in the sky Black rivers are rolling out, carrying us away
THE SUN IS STRANGER You’ve been here all along The frost on the pane The sun is stranger than we had imagined You breathe in you breathe out But in a moment’s time
AVENTURINE Hold on tight the winds getting Restless The sergeant at arms is wasted and sleeping Through the crystal rain, to the astral plane Jasper and pearl strewn on the skyline
SAVIOR Smiling and dangling He’s right, he’s right I’m gone Surrounded by princes He’s all, he’s all I’m gone CH: But my savior never shows Digging all morning He’s all, he’s all I’m gone CH: But my savior never shows
NOW I’M GOING HOME I danced on the rings of Saturn and clawed the burns CH: I’m broken down but now I’m going home If you see my mother be sure to let her know CH And the clouds are different everyday
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In the year 2020, when civilization seemed to be teetering on the brink, The Grand Undoing released their fourth album entitled In A Vigil State, an album that was rightfully heralded at the time as a pop-rock masterpiece. 
MWE3: How have you been these past 5 years? Why was there such a long wait between the pandemic era of In A Vigil State and the post-pandemic vibe of your 2026 album Songs For The Sleeping? Did the effects of the pandemic era delay the album? In A Vigil State was a great achievement during a highly stressful period. How do you compare the two albums and is there a way to link them? 
Seth: I got very into the enneagram in the period between records. I started to see the world in those sorts of terms so writing with that in mind became very natural for me. I’m an enneagram number nine myself, or a peacekeeper at best, but deeply conflict avoidant and self-abandoning at worse. Sometimes, ‘Nines’ can wake up and realize that they’ve gone with the flow so much that the path of least resistance has built a world around them that’s not of their own choosing. Songs For Nines was the first title, but I figured that almost nobody would know what a nine really is, so the title Songs For The Sleeping got more to the actual essence of that set of challenges particular to the enneagram number nine in a way that people could understand. The nine songs fit in well with the theme too, a happy coincidence.
MWE3: Also on “Creature” Dave Mattacks plays drums. How did you meet Dave? He played with the original Fairport Convention. 
Seth: It’s not really a song about crystals, but aventurine came to mind for me, more for its vibrant green color. I grew up around the stones that my father would polish, in one of those popular hobbies of yesteryear.