Mid-October found us back at Fox’s Den Studio in the beautiful Algonquin Highlands, surrounded by the brilliant fall colours of the Canadian autumn.
There must have been a little WooWoo in the air!
Sly, Lote, and I had gathered for our final creative review of Voodoo and WooWoo. But this session was special for another reason. It was the first time all three of us had been together in the studio since October 2025, when we wrapped up Oxy’s Morons.
And after the year we’ve had, getting the gang back together felt particularly good.
When Life Changes the Tempo
2026 may well go down as our least productive year since SixFootStilts began making music during the COVID lockdowns.
Not exactly a record we were hoping to break!
Between Sly’s house move, my own family responsibilities, and some creative differences over AI, our usual musical momentum took a beating.
Interestingly, Lote admitted he’d actually welcomed the slower pace. After several years of producing as many as three albums annually, he’d been caught in an endless cycle of writing lyrics and recording vocals. No sooner was one song finished than another arrived in his inbox.
The good news is that after this slower year he’s ready to pick up the pace again.
Four Chords and Three Sets of Ears
We’ve explored the mysteries of creativity and collaboration in previous blogs. Where do ideas come from? And why does sharing an unfinished idea sometimes lead somewhere unexpected?
We touched on these questions in our earlier post, Inspired by Ghost Notes.
A perfect example emerged during the making of Voodoo and WooWoo.
Sly had developed a promising four-chord melody but couldn’t quite figure out where to take it. So he passed it along to Lote. Lote heard something different, brought his own songwriting instincts to the table, and developed what became Do You Believe.
Four chords. Two creative minds. One new song.
That’s collaboration at its best.
And it works both ways.
During our Fox’s Den review, three or four songs needed considerably more attention than we’d anticipated. When you’ve spent months working on a song, you become so familiar with it that you can lose perspective. Then someone else questions an arrangement or hears something you hadn’t considered.
Suddenly, you’re listening to your own music differently.
It’s not just about fresh ears. It’s about different ears.
Those different perspectives can occasionally be frustrating, but they’re also what make the music better. We left Fox’s Den with a healthy list of improvements for Sly to tackle and Lote to sing before we are ready for release…
No pressure, guys!
Turning Over a New Leaf
While 2026 has been a quieter year musically, there’s plenty happening beneath the surface.
Our next album, Urban Legends, is already taking shape, with three or four songs reasonably well developed and ideas mapped out for roughly a dozen tracks.
Meanwhile, my immediate goal is to release Voodoo and WooWoo on SoundCloud before Christmas.
Looking back on our weekend at Fox’s Den, I can’t help seeing a parallel between the changing autumn landscape and our own creative journey.
The seasons change. Life gets complicated. Perspectives shift. Sometimes we need to slow down, and sometimes we need to find our way back to one another. After a year of challenges, three old friends were once again sitting together, listening, debating, laughing, and making music.
And that might just be the best thing to come out of Fox’s Den this fall.
Stay tuned, fellow Stilters. There’s a little more Voodoo and WooWoo coming your way before Christmas!
JawnyB – October 21, 2026
SixFootStilts — We’re Longform in a Shortform World.
