Last August Binghamton-based Yolk returned to the stage for its first show in a couple years. The experience may well have had a hand in inspiring band member Jeff Pettit to release his solo debut. Still, as Pettit explains, It Is What It Is also is the product of impending fatherhood.

He writes:

About ten weeks before the birth of my twins, I had an epiphany : this would probably be my last chance to record music for years.

Don’t get me wrong, I love my kids and very much want and enjoy them, but having three babies will put some serious constraints on your time. I’ve been dedicated to playing music for 20 years; I’ve been part of some great music created by some wonderful, inspired people. I just have never had the courage to create and produce an album of my own. I will admit that working with/for other people is difficult in that most of the time you are either arguing for hours to have your voice heard, or selflessly helping someone else make his/her music come to life. The larger problem was this : because I was worried that I needed to create something that would be ‘better’ than past projects or music created by my friends, that I needed to come up with something ‘Genius’ with a capital g, I did little. 15 years of sketches remained just that. I started struggling with questions like ‘what genre should I write in?’, ‘why are my lyrics so embarrassing?’, ‘who would ever want to listen to this stuff?’ etc…. So, now I had a finite window to do something ….anything.

I came up with some parameters: I would write and record a song a week for ten weeks. After the week was done, I would move on- stop recording- no matter how embarrassing the results. I would just concentrate on making the song as good as it could be in the time I had to do it, with no thought about anything else – no help from anyone else. ‘It Is What It Is’ indeed.

The album is now available online.