Dear Presence by Painter Fingers

This album explores themes of internal desires vs. external realities, stoicism, and keeping perspective when all around you seems in chaos. There is a running conflict between the urgency to make the most of life while it's still an option and, at the same time, the awareness that one must slow down in order to take it all in and enjoy it.

The first notes of this album were recorded in November of 2024, unbeknownst to me at the time. I released the song "Another Day off the Calendar" as a single, and there was no exact plan for a full album.

In early summer of 2025, school had just let out, and unlike the previous summer, I would not have to undergo a move across the state of Texas, nor all of the unpacking and adjustments that go along with such a drastic life change. At that point, we were more-or-less settled into life in Melissa, we had figured out a nice assortment of summer camps to keep Lucy entertained, and I could spend longer increments of time really delving into the recording process.

I had plenty of material I wanted to work with, sifting through countless iPhone notes and putting things together in (what I thought were) creative ways. Many of the songs had a kind of folk-rock vibe, and most of those became what you hear on the EP As the Eye Can See, which was released in July 2025. In the process of recording all of those songs, many emerged that did not quite fit within the collection of primarily ballads and softer rock tracks. Regardless, I continued to work on all songs, somewhat concurrently, and I decided to release them as two separate collections, hammering out the rest of the second release throughout the fall semester of school.

Those summer outliers, paired with a few fresh ideas / experiments that sprang up along the way, now comprise Dear Presence.

Dream folk, indie pop, soft rock

Latest album "Dear Presence" streaming Jan 2, 2026.

Painter Fingers is the recording project of Travis Charles Hagan, a songwriter and middle school teacher from Texas.

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