Collected over time.
Payne Co. is the new 13-track album from Backward Collective. Most of it was made in 2026, but some of it had been waiting a lot longer. Ideas for many of the lyrics started in notebooks from 2004 and 2005, then spent the better part of twenty years in an attic before being pulled back out and put to work.
Listen.
Payne Co. is out now — thirteen tracks, 49 minutes and 16 seconds. Choose a service below to hear the full record.
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The story behind the record
The Long Road to Payne Co.
Thirteen tracks, collected over time. The full liner notes are here without taking over the page: open the story, then open only the chapters you want to read.
Read the liner notes
011:45 A.M.
Around 1:45 a.m., Adam Headrick and Jason Presley finally got the take. Eight or ten attempts into “100% Off”, they were working in a Philadelphia home studio built inside a converted indoor swimming pool.
More than thirty years into making music together, they were still trying to get two guitars to agree.
02THE SAME HOSPITAL. THE SAME WEEK.
Their history begins unusually early: born in the same hospital, the same week.
By high school, they were learning AC/DC, Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix. They didn’t get every progression right. But the sounds and styles stayed with them, finding their way into the songs and bands that followed.
03STILLWATER TO NEW YORK
In Stillwater, they formed Certified Fools with fellow founding member Brad Hardy, releasing Melvin Moody in 1995.
New York brought Prankstar: Michael Tuminello as primary songwriter, singer and bassist, with John McCann on keyboards. One arrived in 2004; Rue de Blackwell in 2007. Tuminello, Presley and Headrick returned as a trio for three singles in 2025.
04SONGS THAT WAITED
Backward Collective grew out of Headrick and Presley’s collaboration in their respective New York home studios.
Around his 2004–2005 Iraq deployment, Headrick kept a journal called Acoustic Songs of Love and War. “Dusty” emerged in 2006; “White Flags” reached Cimarron Plaza in 2014.
Much of the rest might have spent eternity in an attic, untouched.
05RYAN FOUND THE MUSIC
Ryan Webber became one of the album’s principal collaborators, co-writing, arranging and serving as lead vocalist on more than half of Payne Co.
His fingerprints are especially clear on “Friend Gone”, “Too Tired”, “100% Off” and “Haunts Me Still”. He built arrangements, reshaped lyrics and often found the form hiding inside Headrick’s original pages. On “Haunts Me Still,” a chorus that named Iraq became “She haunts me still.” On “Too Tired,” he turned the opening verse into the chorus.
The old pages became songs that could finally be played.
06PAYNE COUNTY 3
Initially, Headrick, Presley and Webber called their collaboration Payne County 3, after the county containing their hometown of Stillwater.
More contributors joined. The song ideas became an album. They recognized it as part of the Backward Collective family, and Payne Co. remained as the title.
07THE PHOTOGRAPH
The cover reaches further back: Headrick’s great-great-grandfather working with his two sons at a coal mine in 1913.
The photograph was taken in Claremore, in northeastern Oklahoma, well away from Payne County. An earlier chapter of the family history, carried onto the sleeve of a new record.
08PRAYERS AND GUITAR SOLOS
On the opener, “Shawat”, Tuminello adds meditative, prayer-like vocals to a piece named for a village in eastern Afghanistan—a place of natural beauty and a violent history.
“Petey” began as Headrick’s instrumental, named for the Pistol Pete sticker on his Fender Mustang. Tuminello added verses and vocals. Presley supplied ripping chorus solos.
09OLD FRIENDS, NEW PARTS
“Petey”, “Too Tired” and “LEB2PHI” preceded the full album as singles.
On “LEB2PHI,” co-written with Presley, Brad Hardy returned on vocals and drums. McCann contributed keyboards to the album.
“Brand New Dawn” was written by Headrick on a flight from Oklahoma City through Dallas to Philadelphia for a Backward Collective collaboration; Jason Taylor later added harmonica, with John Dawson on drums.
The recordings moved among home studios in Philadelphia, Brooklyn, New Jersey and Colorado.
10MAKING ROOM
When Brooke Blizzard’s unexpected violin arrived for “Friend Gone”, other instruments were pulled back to make room for her solo.
Each new contribution could change what was already there. A song passed between friends could become something none of them had started with.
11THE FINISHING TOUCH
Tuminello’s a cappella harmonies on “Weight & Sea” prepare the farewell.
Then comes “SoLong”, a melancholy instrumental built around Headrick’s guitar. Presley’s piano was one of the album’s last layers—a finishing touch that gave the piece movement.
Eight-year-old Theo Headrick supplies the closing sound effect.
12WHEREVER LIFE TAKES THEM
At its core, Backward Collective is still what it was at the beginning: old friends making songs together, wherever life happens to take them.
Thirteen tracks.
Open a title for the recording note, personnel and preview. The complete album is out now on Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube.
The players.
Adam Headrick, Jason Presley, Michael Tuminello and John McCann played together in Prankstar in the early 2000s. Payne Co. puts the four of them back on the same record, with Ryan Webber, Brad Hardy, Brooke Blizzard, Jason Taylor and John Dawson joining in.
The package.
The album package, track list and printed credits.