ATMs is a cosmic pondering on the countless, stifled transactional relationships held within our daily routine(s), the whirlpool of hope and despair upon discovering Mitski's "Bury Me at Makeout Creek" and the true overarching impact of Doctor Who companion, Rose Tyler.

The first official new material since 2007's People on Planes Singing Airport Songs under the JP05 moniker, ATMs serves as a perfect reintroduction to Jeff Patlingrao as a solo artist.

The song is also an indirect meta-commentary on having not released any music in so long, despite being musically active over the last 14 years.

Let's review:

There were various loud and quiet iterations of JP05, Jeff's solo project from 2005, which transitioned to the somewhat more psychedelic "dead man guitar" angled Orca Age in late 2009 during a 30 minute noise jam rendition of "I Dream a Highway" by Gillian Welch. Despite a handful of truly transcendent live experiences, Orca Age never really found its on-stage or in-studio footing, at least consistently, or to Jeff's satisfaction. And so there happen to be many many recordings, intended to be part of a hypothetical box set, that were started and never finished between 2009-2016.

Jeff also spent a lot of that time on the road, playing guitar (and occasional drums) and touring for a number of years, with Shawn Fogel/Golden Bloom (NJ, 2005-2013). Through a chance meeting on a random bill at Pete's Candy Store in Brooklyn, Jeff befriended Sheboygan WI band, Cedarwell, and began trading shows with them in 2006. In 2008, he joined them on tour as 2nd guitar player, eventually joining the band as an official member, producer and co-writer, and remains so to this day.

At home, Jeff was drumming with The Planes (NY, 2011-2015), while building a home studio, The Invisibility Archive, in Brooklyn (2013-2017), where he did production, tracking, and mixing work with The True Jacqueline (Western MA) as well as with The Planes - mixing an EP and a full length during his time in the band, and tracking/mixing the full length that followed his departure.

In 2014, Jeff took part in a Brooklyn Band Lottery, which spawned the effervescent trio, Psych Psweat. Jeff ended up writing four new songs for this, breaking a very long dry spell. Among them, was ATMs.

Stephen from The Planes liked ATMs so much after hearing it live, he immediately asked Jeff if he could cover it. Jeff said, "of course!!" Steve would go on to actually rewrite his own awesome version of the song, and put it on 2017's Wax Diamond, which as mentioned above, was recorded and mixed by Jeff.

There was a fun little stint of dressing up as J Mascis in an eerily accurate Dinosaur Jr. cover band called Son of Mogo (2015-2017).

Jeff first came to Honeytone Studio in 2015, on a lunch break visit in between Cedarwell sets at the Mile of Music Festival in Appleton, WI. He and studio owner, Patrick Boland became instant friends, texting about pedals and recording gear, even as soon as that first visit was over. Cedarwell would spend the next few years chipping away at their latest album (a few days per year) and Jeff would fly in for other sessions or do remote work at his home studio. It soon became clear that Honeytone was the place he needed to be. In 2018, Jeff made the big move from Brooklyn to Neenah, WI to join the production team at Honeytone Studio. Probably the best decision of his adult life.

But wait, that was 2018... it's 2021.

There was also a lot of procrastination - like A LOT.. throughout the entirety of this. Life, in general, other work, the golden age of television, waves of loss and the perpetual sinking feeling that it may be too late, made it all too easy to NOT do stuff. Until one day, you do... and here we are...

In the broader sense, ATMs is about considering what we allow to guide us through space and time - the push and pull of impermanence and infinity - there are moments and details, the people around us, all of which we hold dear, and yet there's also this sense of a higher calling from the so-called universe. There's all that self-doubt and trauma that we carry around - which for better or worse, informs our personal guiding principles as well. The song may suggest a choice, but the reality is more than likely, not any single one, but a swirling vortex of all of those things pushing us forwards and backwards through life.

ATMs is very much about weathering this sort of existential whirlwind, differentiating stillness from self-paralysis, as well as conjuring whatever it may take to move on - everything and anything, I suppose.