White Tomatoes From the Vine

Next Friday will see the release of the fourth and final "single" from "The White Tomato," "Indigo Cassinova."

For this album, my third solo (and fourth when you count "Mixed Signals" which was recorded by my band, Devin Tait and the Traitors), I have been more prolific than usual. For each of the four single releases, I created EPs which each had four songs. The EPs included alternate versions, remixes, and each had one exclusive "b-side," because I am a huge fan of b-sides!

The White Tomato Era has been extremely fun for me, and even though - or perhaps because - I haven't been playing any live shows, I've been more focused on producing these single EPs and doing video and online promotion. If I had any influence over the world, I would have won an award for my video diaries leading up to the release of the album, and I'm proud of the videos that I've made to accompany the songs. 

With Indigo Cassinova, and it's accompanying single EP, I owe a huge debt to my alter ego, Mannifred LaCroix, as this particular EP would not exist without him. But I'll get to that later. Here, I'm going to write about each EP chronologically.

CIVIL TWILIGHT 8/1/25

1. Civil Twilight

2. Gertrude

3. Hit It Again (Iris Dee Jay Remix)

4. Civil Twilight (Original Version)

The first single to be issued from "The White Tomato" and the only one that preceded the album's release. This was one of the last songs to be written for the album, but like many of the songs, was originally intended as a song for my alter ego, Mannifred LaCroix. Actually, I just thought it would be a good name for a album or EP, then I started thinking about it being the title track of that EP or album, and then suddenly when I was working on what became "The White Tomato," the entire song came to me in the form of a video idea. The entire idea was the initially the action would take place in a park at dusk, I would see the person I thought I was "vibin'" with and would approach them, only to discover they were there to meet another. You'd think I'd learn, but in the second version the action moves to a cruise ship and I would see the same person, thinking it was a sign and it was meant to be. And the person looks my way, smiles, and waves... but then I realize it's directed to someone else just in front of me. That video has yet to be made, but I ended up really liking the song once I recorded it. It seemed very simple and catchy to me. While preparing a marketing plan for the album, I commissioned a remix by Bilal Studio. When I got it back, it blew me away. I couldn't stop listening to it. I made the wild decision to make that the album/single version. Soon after I decided to do an EP type release for each single, with multiple b-sides, and naturally I decided to include the original version that was meant for the album, here. One of my old friends actually messaged and said they preferred that version. Dylan and I had a fun time shooting the visualizer footage for this one. We literally just walked across the street and down to the American River, set up a tripod and filmed on my iPhone. Then we walked down to the confluence with the Sacramento River to shoot the footage where the rivers meet, and then those two girls in the background caught on and started dancing. They asked me later if they were going to be on YouTube. I had commissioned a remix of "Hit It Again" by one of my favorite producers, Iris Dee Jay, and wanted to give a little more of a hint about the album so I included that remix here. Then, I had separately been working with Gustavo Plaza on this weird song "Gertrude" which was sort of a childhood nightmare/concocted story that I was trying to do some sort of \witch-house/ vibe. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it,  but I wanted an exclusive b-side so it just all worked out.

HIT IT AGAIN 9/26/25

1. Hit It Again (Dub Mix)

2. British Babes

3. The Spy Who Loved Me (Gonzobeatz Remix)

4. Hit It Again (Original Version)

I was further refining the formula here, as I decided to continue to tease the next single, so I included a remix of "The Spy Who Loved Me" as I had two and I knew I wanted the other one to be the main single/video version. Also, I had the original recording of "Hit It Again" which was originally meant for the album before I completed overhauled it. Around this time, this idea slapped me in the face and my brain was inundated with thoughts of the next two b-sides being named "British Babes" and "Buttercream." I drilled down to think of what British Babes meant to me, and I thought of my earliest trips to London and the UK, which I have always been obsessed with, and meeting British guys at clubs and just how enamored of them that I was. I didn't overthink it too much and worked with Bilal Studio who did all the mixing and remixing of it. Meanwhile, my friend and video director Jasten King was working on the video for "Hit It Again" but we kept running into snags . That was actually intended to be the lead single and video, but we switched to "Civil Twilight" when it became clear that the video for "Hit It Again" wouldn't be done before the album release date. So while we were brainstorming new ideas for the video, we "hit" upon (pun intended) and idea of doing three different videos for the song, using the various mixes we had, of people getting frustrated and worn down bit by bit and finally snapping. While we plotted the more elaborate video, we decided to do two quicker ones, one of which would be of me as a newscaster, heavily influenced by Blondie's "Doom or Destiny" video. The other one was going to be a workout-type video, but that one never happened. Now, as I'm ending the White Tomato album cycle (OR AM I?!?!), we're going to release the real, official video after everything else has already been released. It reminds me of the phrase I used to title my first album.... it's never the way you imagine it!

THE SPY WHO LOVED ME 10/23/25

1. The Spy Who Loved Me (Bilal's HI-NRG Remix)

2. Buttercream

3. Civil Twilight (Acoustic)

4. Duchess of Despair (Original Version)

I have to admit, I had a lot of fun with this one! By now, I figured I knew the formula, and I had basically written "Buttercream" at the same time as "British Babes." And I already had the "original" version of Duchess of Despair, although it's not original in the same way that Civil Twilight was. This was more like an early mix, which I had sent to Frederico Medeiros for him to add guitar to, so it was never intended to be a completed version. But it was much truer to the original idea back when the song was going to be on the Mannifred LaCroix EP "International Agent." Yes, this track was actually recorded back in 2018 simultaneously with "Art Damage" as my alter ego's project. I got to include this little nod to that. I had Buttercream all worked out and just needed the female vocal, and luckily found Margo Michele and she knocked it out of the park. I still plan to do a video for this one. I mixed the acoustic version of Civil Twilight using the guitar part that Craig Levy had subtly added to what became the "original version" of the song. Then, I knew I wanted a SAW-inspired remix of "The Spy Who Loved Me" and I knew Bilal Studio would do the trick. I did end up futher remixing that to give it a little more dynamics and then I had intended to film a Carmen Sandiego-inspired video because in October, I had trips to Provincetown, Boston, Palm Springs, Joshua Tree, Los Angeles and San Francisco all planned. But in my typical style, I procrastinated and then ended up filming the entire visualizer in two days in Palm Springs. 

INDIGO CASSINOVA 11/28/25

1. Indigo Cassinova (Mannifred LaCroix Remix)

2. Forest

3. Denizen X (Iris Dee Jay Remix)

4. Indigo Cassinova (Original Version)

This, the fourth and final single from "The White Tomato" is really completely a Mannifred LaCroix release. "Indigo Cassinova" was originally written and recorded for Manni's "International Agent" EP back in 2018. But that never got released, and I picked back up on the project in 2024, intending to finally finish it. Of course, that gradually became "The White Tomato" by Devin Tait, which was actually the original title of what became "Art Damage" (which in turn, of course, became "Mixed Signals"). Basically, I never let an idea go. Indigo was one of the first songs finished for the album. Going back to 2023, I had released what was and still is the only Mannifred LaCroix project that ever actually became public, the "Denizens of Doomland" EP. "Denizen X" was a song that was original intended for late-era Shitting Glitter, but Amy never wrote lyrics to it, so I tried it for a couple other things before it ended up on Doomland. This remix, by Iris Dee Jay, was actually of that version. The version that ended up on "The White Tomato" was an entirely new mix with re-recorded vocals. "Forest" was a song from Mannifred's very first album, which at this point I'm remembering as self titled. None of that was ever finished or released but this song kicked around and survived and now it's finally born into the world! For "Indigo Cassinova," I included the original version meant for the album, which had been eclipsed by the remixed version done by Dimas Pradana. Then, I also wanted a remix but decided that I would just bring Mannifred in to do it, since he was already all over this project. The version ended up sounding so quintessentially Manni that it really brought it all together to a fit conclusion to this phase of the era.