As a child I spent summers visiting family in Pennsylvania, where I can remember going out to the countryside at twilight to watch the fireflies. Hundreds of luminous yellow points in the distance, hovering, slowly pulsating, some near, some afar—a mesmerizing natural light show. Fireflies in inspired by the beautifully strange behavior of these little insects and the countryside they inhabit. The guitar is placed in an open tuning and prepared with a third bridge—a wooden dowel inserted between the strings and fretboard. The bridge is positioned at the 10th fret so that the string segments on both sides of the bridge create an interval of a major third. The guitar is played face-up on the lap with left and right hands engaging both front and back tones. Aside from fingernails, a small variety of objects are used to engage the strings, most notably, a solid metal dowel.
