---
title: Backseat Voices
type: LP
releasedAt: 2026-05-28
coverArt: /audio/albums/backseat-voices/folder.png
featured: false
filtered: false
blurb: |-
  The kid-POV album. Camera turned around. Every track is sung from a child's perspective looking at the family — Daddy, Mama, the siblings, the house, the school, the day. The format pivot that breaks the dad-voice monopoly running through the rest of the catalog. Frame: across the album the listener hears the family through Liam, Ava, Iyla, and Tessa in rotation. The "I" is never Philip. Daddy and Mama are observed characters — kid-eye-view, not dad-eye-view.
streaming: {}
tracks:
  - num: 1
    title: From The Carseat
    audioUrl: /audio/albums/backseat-voices/from-the-carseat.mp3
    duration: 190
    imageUrl: /audio/albums/backseat-voices/folder.png
    date: 2026-05-28
    featured: false
    notes: |-
      opener. Tessa's POV looking up at Daddy driving. Words she doesn't have yet expressed in the simplest possible language — colors, sounds, the back of Daddy's head, the way the seatbelt catches her shoulder. Track is short, half-formed on purpose. Whole album's establishing shot.
    lyricsFile: backseat-voices/from-the-carseat.md
  - num: 2
    title: Liam Sees It All
    audioUrl: /audio/albums/backseat-voices/liam-sees-it-all.mp3
    duration: 166
    imageUrl: /audio/albums/backseat-voices/folder.png
    date: 2026-05-28
    featured: false
    notes: |-
      eldest-brother angle. Liam watching the household from the top of the kid-stack: knows when Ava's about to cry, knows when Iyla is about to climb something, knows when Daddy's about to lose it over Legos. The narrator of the family.
    lyricsFile: backseat-voices/liam-sees-it-all.md
  - num: 3
    title: Ava In The Mirror
    audioUrl: /audio/albums/backseat-voices/ava-in-the-mirror.mp3
    duration: 178
    imageUrl: /audio/albums/backseat-voices/folder.png
    date: 2026-05-28
    featured: false
    notes: |-
      Ava's bathroom self-talk, age 5. Adjusting the hair, picking the dress, practicing the eye-roll. The kid running her own one-girl pep talk before the school bus. The album's first track that goes fully inside one kid's head.
    lyricsFile: backseat-voices/ava-in-the-mirror.md
  - num: 4
    title: Iyla's World
    audioUrl: /audio/albums/backseat-voices/iylas-world.mp3
    duration: 149
    imageUrl: /audio/albums/backseat-voices/folder.png
    date: 2026-05-28
    featured: false
    notes: |-
      three-year-old logic narrating her own day. Whatever Liam does, Iyla does. Whatever Ava wears, Iyla wants. The "I" doing all the things she's not quite ready for because the only thing that matters is keeping up.
    lyricsFile: backseat-voices/iyla-s-world.md
  - num: 5
    title: The View From Goddard
    audioUrl: /audio/albums/backseat-voices/the-view-from-goddard.mp3
    duration: 152
    imageUrl: /audio/albums/backseat-voices/folder.png
    date: 2026-05-28
    featured: false
    notes: |-
      Iyla's day in her voice. Drop-off, Turtle Room, snack, nap mat, pickup. The track's whole shape is the kid's day, narrated by the kid. The cubby with her name on it, the teacher who knows her, the friend whose name she always says wrong.
    lyricsFile: backseat-voices/the-view-from-goddard.md
  - num: 6
    title: My Daddy Works At Home
    audioUrl: /audio/albums/backseat-voices/my-daddy-works-at-home.mp3
    duration: 191
    imageUrl: /audio/albums/backseat-voices/folder.png
    date: 2026-05-28
    featured: false
    notes: |-
      a kid (probably Liam) explaining Philip's job to a friend at recess. The kid version: "he sits at a desk and he types and sometimes he talks on the computer." Earnest, slightly off, accidentally accurate.
    lyricsFile: backseat-voices/my-daddy-works-at-home.md
  - num: 7
    title: My Mama Drives To Town
    audioUrl: /audio/albums/backseat-voices/my-mama-drives-to-town.mp3
    duration: 199
    imageUrl: /audio/albums/backseat-voices/folder.png
    date: 2026-05-28
    featured: false
    notes: |-
      same kid explaining Maria's commute. "She gets in the car and she goes to Centennial." The job concept is abstract; the driving part is what the kid can see. The track lives in the difference.
    lyricsFile: backseat-voices/my-mama-drives-to-town.md
  - num: 8
    title: Sister, Brother, Sister, Sister
    audioUrl: /audio/albums/backseat-voices/sister-brother-sister-sister.mp3
    duration: 143
    imageUrl: /audio/albums/backseat-voices/folder.png
    date: 2026-05-28
    featured: false
    notes: |-
      Liam's POV on his three sisters, in order. One verse per sister: Ava, Iyla, Tessa. He's the only boy and he knows it. The album's sibling map, told from the top.
    lyricsFile: backseat-voices/sister-brother-sister-sister.md
  - num: 9
    title: Birthday Wish
    audioUrl: /audio/albums/backseat-voices/birthday-wish.mp3
    duration: 214
    imageUrl: /audio/albums/backseat-voices/folder.png
    date: 2026-05-28
    featured: false
    notes: |-
      kid-POV right before blowing out candles. What the kid is actually thinking when everyone's singing. Not what they say the wish was — what it really was. Format constraint: each verse is a different kid's birthday wish, same melody, four very different wishes.
    lyricsFile: backseat-voices/birthday-wish.md
  - num: 10
    title: When Daddy Tucks Me In
    audioUrl: /audio/albums/backseat-voices/when-daddy-tucks-me-in.mp3
    duration: 231
    imageUrl: /audio/albums/backseat-voices/folder.png
    date: 2026-05-28
    featured: false
    notes: |-
      bedtime POV. What one kid notices that Philip doesn't know they notice. The way Daddy's voice gets quieter on the last page. The way he stands at the door an extra second before he leaves. The kid-eye observation that's also the most adult moment on the album.
    lyricsFile: backseat-voices/when-daddy-tucks-me-in.md
  - num: 11
    title: What I'll Remember
    audioUrl: /audio/albums/backseat-voices/what-ill-remember.mp3
    duration: 240
    imageUrl: /audio/albums/backseat-voices/folder.png
    date: 2026-05-28
    featured: false
    notes: |-
      closer. Future-kid voice looking back at this exact year. The reverse of a future-letter album — the kid writing back, twenty years from now, naming the small things that turned out to matter. The line one of them ends up quoting at Daddy's funeral, maybe. Slow. The album's heart.
    lyricsFile: backseat-voices/what-i-ll-remember.md
---