On the road in the American West.
Writing, making videos and music, and having the adventure of a lifetime.

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// on the road
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June 21, 2026
Holding a Small Bird
An afternoon energy dip, AI music experiments, secret sauce, the hold-everything-lightly theme, a low battery, and an old friend showing up in Telluride. On Substack now.
→ chasingthebutter.substack.com
 Layng walking down a dirt mountain road above treeline, snow-capped peaks and a green valley behind him.
June 8, 2026
One Month: Jacob Lake to the Million Dollar Highway
A full recap of the last month on the road: songs, stories, games, and everything that came out of the van. On Substack now.
→ read on substack
 Aerial drone shot looking straight down at a campsite on a gravel bar beside a creek, two people by a fire, solar panels deployed, Sprinter van at right, San Juan Mountains, Colorado.
June 4, 2026  ·  San Juan Mountains, Colorado
The Aircraft Carrier
Gibran on work as love. The aircraft carrier that took years to turn around is sailing. Tomorrow: Million Dollar Highway.
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 Drone view of two vans parked on a gravel bar beside a river bend in the Colorado mountains.
June 3, 2026  ·  San Juan Mountains, Colorado
The Game
Slept to the brook, door cracked for the sound. Van vacuumed, energy restored. Brad's campsite road might be impassable. Biking up to check.
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// interviews
Aerial drone shot looking down at Layng standing between solar panels beside his Sprinter van, San Juan Mountains, Colorado.
LAYNG: On Nomadic Life
Nine questions on life as a nomad in the American West. June 4, 2026 · Silverton, Colorado.
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// latest video
A Hike to Clear Lake
Chasing the Butter · 2026
The Fishing Expedition Video
Chasing the Butter · 2026
// music
// hi-fi lonesome sound system
Hi-Fi Lonesome, Season Two
New music created in the spirit of 1960s country LPs.
→ all songs
Driftin'
Hi-Fi Lonesome Sound System · 2026
A Quiet Fortune
Hi-Fi Lonesome Sound System · 2026
Let's Roll
Hi-Fi Lonesome Sound System · 2026
What a Time
Chasing the Butter · 2026
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// field guides
FIELD GUIDES
Interactive guides to the places and topics on the road. Telluride. Pioneer DJS-1000. Sunscreen. More on the way.
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TELLURIDE
A name that doesn't mean what it implies, a bank robbery that made a legend, and an 1891 electricity experiment that helped decide how the country would get powered.
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PIONEER DJS-1000
It looks like a CDJ. It's actually a full drum machine built from the guts of a completely different Pioneer product wearing a different shirt.
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SUNSCREEN
You've been told never to leave the house without it, and that it might be doing something to your body chemistry. Both claims have real evidence behind them.
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// rabbit holes
RABBIT HOLES
Essays on intelligence, effort, creativity, and the practice of making things.
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 A glowing tablet displaying analytics data lies abandoned on a desert roadside at sunset, Monument Valley mesas silhouetted against an orange sky.
THE SAME PRESSURE
The algorithm is just the latest costume. On the pressure that never gives a command, the correction that always finds its way home, and what continuity actually means.
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 A man chopping wood outside a farmhouse, a steaming pot beside him
CHOP WOOD, CARRY WATER
On the two kinds of people you already know, and the singular pattern that explains the gap between them. It's not discipline. It's something simpler and harder to name.
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 Grocery store shelf
OPTIMIZED AGAINST YOU
Three essays on the gap between what the label implies and what's actually happening inside your body. Gum. Seed oils. Private equity. Systems that were never designed with you in mind.
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// games
GAMES
Word games, strategy games, party games. SIGNAL, REVERSI, PARKS, PEEING OR NOT PEEING, and more.
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