Here’s the latest Alphanaut music video, animated and directed by Tonda Ros. The song “Back to the Stars” is from the forthcoming album “Little Sun” and features a fantastical journey of Dingo and his fellow Caninauts as they venture across the universe.

The Alphanaut single “Back to the Stars” is now available on 

The “Back to the Stars” single release features the Radio Edit of the original song found on the new album “Little Sun”, which is due out July 2012.

I wanted to get back into the swing of things by sharing the cover art for “Little Sun” which was photographed by my friend William Thoren. The image is of a beautiful California Oak in the hills above Los Angeles. Will and I worked together on the photography for “The Lunar Age” EP, and when I approached him about creating an image for the new album, I told him of my desire to keep the art direction very grounded and organic. I knew Will had been working on a series of illuminated plants and landscapes which worked perfectly with what I had been envisioning. Once I saw his image of this beautiful tree illuminated in the night sky above the city lights, I knew it was the one. With a little PhotoShop magic we created a bed of stars and the starburst to tie it all together.

Another of Will’s images has been selected for the first single of “Little Sun” titled “Back to the Stars” which I will be sharing here later. Stay tuned here on the blog or at PlanetAlphanaut.com for more details.

Trevor Green plays ukulele on two songs for the upcoming Alphanaut album titled “Little Sun”, “Hey Buddy” (featured in the clip) and “Back To The Stars”. Our pups Dubbo and Tooey were on hand to provide the perfect mojo for the songs.

This clip sheds a glimmer of light on the back story of the album, which is firmly locked in this little plot of land we live on atop a quiet little hill in Hollywood.

For this set Ted Scarlett and I decided to include just enough sequenced parts from the record to hint at the original version of the song, but ultimately allow the tune to rock out a bit. It’s funny, even when we were mixing the original it felt like the song ultimately wanted to ‘rock out’, so playing it live will allow it to find a spirit it didn’t lock into at the time.

Never Been To Athens – Alphanaut Rehearsal July 12, 2011 by Alphanaut

Stay tuned for more news on the live show at www.planetalphanaut.com

Jorge and I mapped out some unusual percussion ideas to bring to the recording session for “Little Sun”, including using non traditional items such as pots, pans and boxes. The video ends with a hint of the third song in the lineup titled “Big Day”.

A Look To The Future – Alphanaut Rehearsal July 03, 2011 by Alphanaut

This time around we did most of the recording at my home, mostly due to a very humble budget, but also because the new material is so closely tied into experiences of days past here on our little hill in Los Angeles. I don’t want to give away too much of the back story yet, but the thirteen songs on “Little Sun” are all part of a singular storyline. I guess you can call it a good old fashioned ‘concept album’. The songs came at me like a tidal wave in a very condensed period of time, most of which were written over five months between October 2009 and March 2010. I hadn’t even finished recording vocals, let alone begun mixing the previous Alphanaut album “Out of Orbit”, when these tunes came to me. It was completely unexpected, and a bit crazy trying to balance finishing one album while writing another, but I knew while the creative juices were flowing I had to tap into them. I had to just go with it.

Once again, I’ve teamed up with the same creative core I worked with on “Out of Orbit” and “The Lunar Age”, partnering with Ted Scarlett, this time giving him a broader co-producing roll. Ted has covered a lot of ground on “Little Sun”, tasked with reproducing my demo parts including piano, bass on half the album, a smattering of guitars, some drum programming and the monumental feat of expanding my string ideas and charting them for a quartet. Definitely couldn’t have done this without his passion for the project.

For the drums and percussion I worked with my good friend Jorge Villanueva, who appeared on “Out of Orbit” as well, and in this particular clip we are working on the song “King of the Mountain”. There was a conscious decision right from the beginning for this album to feel different than it’s predecessor. I certainly didn’t want to repeat myself, and I ultimately wasn’t happy being trapped with the sequenced sounds I created for the previous two releases. So I wrote most of the tunes around live drum sounds, simple piano melodies and bass lines, inspiring a more organic feel overall.

You can stay up to date on all Alphanaut news at www.planetalphanaut.com

This album is going to be a very different experience sonically, breaking out from the confines of “Out of Orbit” and “The Lunar Age”. Firstly, there are very few loops and programmed parts on “Little Sun”, and those that are included will take a backseat to the live instrumentation. Secondly, the subject matter to the lyrics are much more personal and reflective, focused on a very specific period of time in my life these last two years. My desire is that the end result is something that feels much more organic, honest and Earthbound.

I’ll be posting more details on each tune and the project as a whole as the release date gets closer, but for now here are the song titles as promised.

1. Falling To Earth
2. Hey Buddy
3. Big Day
4. King of the Mountain
5. Run
6. Alpha To Omega
7. Pretty Chemicals
8. Pleading with God
9. All Night Crying
10. Sirens of the Valley
11. Back to the Stars
12. Family Tree
13. A Look to the Future