Crude experiments on a basement floor with a Fostex Multitracker X-14. Alluring possibilities contained within the blank slate of a repurposed regular cassette tape. Recording for recording's sake, with no end goal. 

Direct-input electric guitar. Lyrical notepad sketches. Singing through a fist clenching a tiny Radio Shack microphone. Borrowing the family's Casio Tone Bank keyboard on the "drums" setting: Left pinky on the kick, index on snare, right hand dancing across hi-hat, ride, and crash. Four tracks: 1) guitar, 2) vocal, 3) "drums," 4) vocal harmony & guitar solos.

With a growing collection of homemade albums that only he ever listed to, Tommy Duggins studied, critiqued, and realized each tiny triumph and quiet failure. Output judged privately, embarrassments contained, avoiding the mortifying representation of an artistic Self misaligned against a current Identity.

Eventually upgrading to Garageband and sharing releases with a small audience, the home recordist started live solo gigs in 2016. Unsatisfied with the stripped-back representation of the lush recordings, Tommy formed a real band in 2017. 

Established in 2002, Patriot Patrol -- so named, tongue-in-cheek, after a yet-unimaginable spawn of the collapsing empire's worst endgame scenario. The unintentionally prophetic moniker did not survive into the era of kleptocratic absolutism and all its trappings. The name was retired, and Vestiges took its place: a band that could write, record, and perform as a band, quickly assuming its own identity.