En route to Los Angeles last year, decker.'s tour van flipped on the freeway, ejecting vocalist/percussionist Kelly Cole, who miraculously survived, and destroying much of the band's gear. Vazquez had bought a new acoustic guitar just hours before, and it was his only instrument left intact. The guitar was practically all Vazquez took with him when he moved; he's sold everything from his piano to his electric guitar to his car. Right now, he doesn't even have a laptop, and he's sleeping in his friend's living room. But according to Vazquez, this traveling "lone wolf" lifestyle is all he wants.

"It felt like I had to leave and do something ... it's been busy, a lot of playing, a lot of walking, a lot of not sleeping," Vazquez tells me over the phone. "I found a job, hopefully. I've just been playing a lot and meeting people. The crowds have been really receptive ... I've played a few kind of shows, I guess. Low profile kind of stuff. I figure I kind of have to start somewhere ... Been a lot of nothing planned which is great, I kinda like it that way. I don't really know what the fuck I'm doing. I'm just kind of doing it."

Vazquez's older brother Chris, also the drummer in the duo's band Vagabond Gods, was supposed to join Bryant, but at the last minute decided to stay in Yuma. And while Vazquez doesn't plan on visiting anytime soon ("I don't really foresee myself going back to Arizona or the West Coast till I have something to show for it.") he's releasing Dear Brother Death as a kind of morose love letter.