This album is a re-recorded edition of unreleased tracks previously existing as only demos or vague ideas written from 2006 to 2020. Due to the circumstances detailed below I felt they necessitated a proper release.

In the summer of 2006, after a mutually toxic relationship with music followed by a lull in productivity, I conceived the idea for what would become The Order 23. There were several names of friends that I thought may still be interested in writing together, most of which couldn’t be bothered, but the first name that came to mind was Shawn.
Shawn and I met in 9th grade when we were caught in the middle of arguing groups and he tried to fight me for absolutely no reason. That’s just the kind of guy he was. We often looked back on that time and laughed about it as adults because for us, very little was taken seriously and the events of that afternoon were totally out of character. We became close friends afterwards and bonded over various interests as well as our shared Sicilian heritage which has a tendency to be frowned upon.
We laughed constantly back then, the jokes never seeming to stop. In 11th grade Shawn thought it would be humorous to make a faux-Soviet band called Bubonic Plague and actually managed to get four guys, including myself, together to do this. That too never materialized since we spent free time together doing things like stealing materials from construction sites to block off perfectly drivable roads. I don’t know if I’ve ever laughed as hard as we did that night. We had not a care in the world. The disruption of other peoples lives brought us joy. Little has changed.
After he had agreed to hear The Order 23 material I was working on we had too many beers and I ended up playing every song I could remember from Anthrax’s “Among The Living” album, unplugged for some unknown reason. But the seed was planted and The Order 23 would become an entity in due time.
In the following years Shawn became a contributor as well as a bigger supporter of what I was writing than anyone ever had. He rattled off song ideas and lyrics, gave the project a direction, and pushed for me to expose these labors to as many people as possible. His efforts extended as far as offering to make and maintain websites and social media pages for me which I politely declined as I am notoriously reclusive.
Eventually Shawn dropped completely off of the grid. I called, texted, emailed, and made social media accounts for the sole purpose of reaching him but was never able. He had erased every pathway to himself and I didn’t understand why.
On December 14th, 2020 Shawn took his own life.
I miss my friend.
This is for him.

Jason White
2023
“The only color here is blue”