Kai Lavatai

Over-the-top excited to let the lost world know, "Saved!" is officially live! There was a delay of about a week (normal), so I was sitting at the edge of my seat. But alas, we are here! The time is now. Go ahead and get Saved! on any of your favorite normie networks 🤯 (Whowuhhh!)

This isn't Disneyland. It's not a rehearsal. And what you see is not all there is.

Paul told us plainly: "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." —Eph. 6:12 (KJV)

And Peter called it louder: "ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation" —1 Peter 2:9 (KJV)

Putting on the New Man:

Oddly Feels Like a Return to Form

Finally; I can turn the page and begin a new chapter! That last one was dense and plotted along slowly. But I can say it was one-hundred percent worth the read. After all, it built up to this moment. Thankful is an understatement. And I'm beyond excited to introduce it to the world, my new Synth Praise album "Saved!"

It's going on six years since Psychic Prejudice fulfilled its purpose. Demons exorcised. Wounds healed—personally but I think globally, a more universal transit surely. It's hard to believe, the passing of time. I've been writing and recording material during this while, exploring where I am headed simultaneously reacquainting myself intimately with my roots, growing up Born Again Christian.

"…[Old] things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." —2 Corinthians 5:17 (KJV)

In the spirit of "[putting] on the new man" —Ephesians 4:24 (KJV), I decided to put my core beliefs center stage: The redemption of a lost world through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

So many IPs have been driven right into the ground in the past decade. I was thinking it's a shame that the good old days were literally just seven or so years ago! When did writers in Hollyweird and fashion houses become such incompetent innovators, or just plain hateful? How could the field be so vacant that music in 2010 felt more cutting edge than music in 2020, that people dress more sloppily now, think less critically, but feel more sensitively than they did in 2016? I can't help but glare at the void understanding its cause is the lack of principles, a lack of coherence.

More fragile and intolerant than ever the faceless mass-man's bandwidth today doesn't realize it's been consuming military-grade AI confections for decades—just gatekept and glamorized behind a barrage of central casting models (most likely abuse victims, mind you). I'll always recall a conversation I had with a retired soldier from the army. He let me know in earnest that the military was privy to technology easily twenty, thirty years or more in advance of public consumption. It can't be a surprise that the industry has been AIing it up for many many years. And it's just trickling down to the hoi polloi now—like a new hand-me-down. Fascinating how a new toy, once handed down, can stir such envy and fear in brothers and sisters who feel alienated from access. And, peering back to the gatekeepers, how such advances have dulled the senses of those in the establishment authoring class—unable to create anything novel beyond viral gain of function research. Pardon. I digress.

In 2026 the only reason we're capable of turning so far back and so abruptly and so fondly as we do, back to styles of the turn of the nineteenth century, no less the 1980s and 90s, because let's admit it; at the very latest for the past twenty years, The Nothing of The Neverending Story has been steadily swallowing up good clean human imagination and order. And it's left such a clearing that one can easily sail 100 years into the past before encountering media that feels really inspired or wholesome at all.

Paying homage to the nostalgic sparkle of Saturday morning cartoons in a way that also focuses on the Gospels somehow felt urgent. Writing commenced.

The title of this album itself is my prayer and friendly nudge for the world to get Saved! Listeners can expect an electropop aesthetic that I hope feels dialed way up! I strove to resuscitate the joy many xennial Christians like myself felt growing up bopping to those ooey gooey synth-drenched 80s kids' praise tapes.

Out of twenty-five or so demos, "Saved!", as I originally planned to ship was stripped way back to 12 songs; this was the plan to keep the program under roughly 40 minutes—suiting it for vinyl pressing later this year. But, last minute, I just grew too in love with the cuts. And before I realized it, I was planning a tiered release.

A 15-track Streaming Edition drops on Spotify, Youtube Music, Apple Music and the like April 21. Pre-sale began today. I laughed. But now? Truly, I turned out much happier after all with the final 'standard streaming' edition, including the additional reworked material; the additions actually have become three of my favorite tracks on the record—songs I almost cut because they didn't perfectly squeeze in thematically to my mind. And "cuts had to be made", was my professional thinking around the vinyl pressing plans. But rethinking it, I could see there were always more than simply two possibilities.

For example, the very first demo I penned in mind for "Saved!" was "He Loves You". And I felt forced to cut it only because it ran long, like almost 5 minutes. I overwhelmingly felt parts of it couldn't be removed without it losing its wholeness; I scrapped it with the idea I'd rework it for something in the future. And now with the tiered release, "He Loves You" is one of the three bonuses on a Direct-support Edition of the album, on Bandcamp.

I'm so glad.

In this fashion, I decided the 12-track, 40-minute original program will still be released later this year on vinyl record, as planned. I'm referring to it as the Collectors' Edition since its a piece of physical media. For me it makes sense because, the album was originally programmed with an A-side and B-side in mind. It told a story. But, highlighting the best of both worlds, 12-track Collectors' Edition holders will feel they're getting the complete package with a download to the full 18-track digital Direct-support Edition of "Saved!"

Between recording sessions I like to go for walks through the forest into town—generally for some reward token like a cold soda or an ice cream. Walks have become more frequent during abduction season. As one could expect, it's difficult focusing attention on work with being forced through a mill and sleep deprived.

There is a spot in town where a faint woodpecker signal can be heard—on the sidewalk between a prominent park and a tavern. Today is day two that I've heard it. Never heard it before but that doesn't mean it wasn't always there. Yesterday and today I stood and listened about one or two minutes each time. It's a very regulated dull clicking emitting from the South, going into the park.

The moment everything appears to slow down—I relax to digest the experiences of the last few months being forced to participate in hotly rigorous trainings night after night (the most extreme, relentless and physically demanding I have ever been subject to)—"Surprise!", I was scheduled first for follow-ups. Night of 12/8 moments after heartedly reporting abductions were going to slow down, FWs had me up, performing clear through 04:00. It was some administrative routine, essentially an audit of everything installed.