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about? DO YOU NEED YOUR ART SPOON FED TO YOU? Me too. Well
this section is dedicated to exactly that. I will be posting comments on each
of my songs, their meanings, how they came together, and any funny little
stories that came about. I hope you will enjoy it. I will do them as I come up
with them, so check back often!
(WARNING: If you've already decided on the meanings of my songs, and don't want to risk being contradicted
here, you should leave quickly! RUN SCURRY FLEE! FLEE! I encourage you to imagine my songs are
about anything you like, as long as it's nothing stupid.)
The big INTRO track, yes. Not a whole lot to say about this one, obviously this is a bunch of mutilated stuff
from This World Insane. It’s been chopped up and processed with all sorts of neat…EFFECTY things. I quite
like it. Just to set the vibe, and to establish that this album was written AFTER This World Insane, even
though it was finished first.
REBORN
This was probably the last song I finished writing. I tend to write the first song last because I want to make
sure it sets the right vibe for the rest of the stuff. Reborn is about making the transition from the fictional
fantasy world of This World Insane, to things which are a little more personal, (hence all the lyrics borrowed
from TWI.) I struggled with the form of this song a lot, it’s a little unfocused in retrospect, but I’m pretty happy
with it. When you write super fast songs, weird things start to happen. For example, if you write things in
your usual forms, the ideas fly by quicker, and it makes it difficult to make it a full length song. I felt this was a
stupid reason to write a short song, so I had to change the way I write.
This song has kind of a funny story. I wrote and demoed the solos in advance. The next day, I set up all my
gear to record the solos FOR REAL, and suddenly I realized this would be the last thing I had to record to
finish the album! I immediately ordered a pizza to celebrate, then ran downstairs to try and record the solos
before the pizza guy arrived. I made it! And the pizza was delicious.
ELECTRIC LIFE
This started with lyrics, then separate music, then I joined them together. It’s one of my favorites! It’s about
the money men, you know the ones. They sit at their conference tables in 2,000 buildings, and run our lives
with computers and little pieces of paper. They get paid $1,000,000 a year to revise insurance policies at the
last minute, spike the gas prices when we start talking about alternative energy, and find new places to put
lovely lovely billboards. Meanwhile, we do all the important work, cooking, cleaning, maintaining
infrastructure, defending the borders to keep them in business, for peanuts and beer. This has always
bothered me. Does it bother you? This song is for you. It also bothers me that people seem to care/notice
less and less.
WHERE I AM
This is one of those songs I managed to write in 2 days. I was watching ROSE RED, the Stephen King thing,
fiddling with the drum machine, and it just sort of happened. I had no intention of making it so strange, it just
flowed so naturally. I hate it when people slam absurdly different pieces of music together just for the sake of
sounding crazy.
This song is about the frustration of knowing what you want to do, and knowing exactly how to do it, without
having ANY ability to accomplish any of it. Like say….trying to start a really great band in Iowa. I have a lot
of songs about this subject, this being one of the more abstract ones. I wrote most of the lyrics in the parking
lot at Super Target at about 3 a.m.
The day I did the vocals, I caught the Faith Hill video for “Cry A Little.“ Although it’s not really my kind of
music, I was blown away by her inspired vocal performance, and the nice production. I went downstairs to my
studio thinking “THIS IS GOING TO BE MY BEST VOCAL PERFORMANCE EVER!“ It’s quite a simple song,
but I really think it turned out nicely.
ADAPT O RAT
This is one of the first songs I wrote for this album. I have the riff on an idea tape from 2000! My plan was to
record 5 songs a month for 3 months, and bang, there’s your album. Even if I couldn’t meet the deadline,
that’s still pretty quick.
WELL, it didn’t last. After doing the first 5 songs, my recorder broke. It was the LAST STRAW! I used to
have this clunky old 8 track, it didn’t work very well. I finally sold it and bought my current unit. I tried to
rerecord the guitars on my new unit, but somehow the sound just wasn’t as good. So what did I do? I
transferred the guitar tracks from the old version, and pasted them over the drum tracks on the new
recorder! TA-DA. That would make them the oldest piece of recorded sound on the CD. Also, I’m sure the
guitar fills are one of the last things I did.
The lyrics for this song started in 2000. I started writing them without any melody or music, just had them on
my computer. Basically, it was one of those days where everyone is on your case, and you just feel totally
unappreciated. With all the horrible things going on in the world, who has time to bug me about how long my
hair is? Who has time to complain about what I’m wearing? If you don’t like me now, consider yourself lucky,
I could be a lot worse.
“If I cut off all my hair and wore Addidas maybe I’d get more ass, who knows.” WHO KNOWS INDEED. I
suppose this dates the song, do young people get this line? Probably not. If you were a teenager in the mid
to late 90’s you probably do. That’s the problem with writing songs complaining about fads….they don’t last
very long.
So, what the hell is an Adapt o Rat? And how are you supposed to spell it anyway? Well, I don’t know
exactly, but it sounds kinda catchy. I suppose it’s a creature that is able to adapt and survive no matter how
volatile conditions may become, and in a way, that’s sort of noble.
THE NEW ME
Wow, this is a very old song. This is one of the first I ever wrote, and one of the first four I recorded. I was in
high school, scribbling lyrics in the back of my notebook when I should‘ve been listening to my teachers,
really fumbling, not knowing what I was doing yet.
This actually started as two completely different songs. In fact, I realized they were exactly the opposite of
each other lyrically, similar tempo, similar vibe….hey let’s put them together! Bang, 5 minute song. I say
they were the opposite of each other because it’s basically two sides of me, fighting it out over what kind of
person I’m going to become. One half wants to be a real standup guy who gets good grades and does
everything right, and the other wants to just chill out and watch TV. (Which side do you think won? I can’t
tell.)
So I managed to write it…SOMEHOW…then I demoed it on cassette 4-track. I was proud, but had no idea
what to do with it. Then a friend of mine got a digital recorder, and offered to help me record a digital version
of it. Wow, DIGITAL, serious shit back then. So we started off working together, but I have to admit I wasn’t
too happy with his production skills. He bought this massive graphic EQ for some reason, and somewhere he’
d read that there are “no mids in metal”. So if you can picture a graphic EQ with the middle third of the
faders SQUASHED TO -20 db, that’s exactly what he ran EVERYTHING through. Finally he agreed to loan
me his gear, and let me finish it myself, which I did. But in the end, I was not very happy with the results.
I forgot about it for a long time, did other things. Then one night, rummaging through my basement closet, I
found the original cassette version of the song and went: “WHOA! This is way better than that ghastly digital
thing, I forgot how good this song is.” So I decided to record it one last time with some decent gear and it
turned out nicely. The only thing I changed was music under the last 2 lines of the bridge. Heavied it up a bit.
I GOT MY WAY
This song is about two things, there’s what it’s ABOUT, and there’s what it’s REALLY ABOUT.
It’s ABOUT trying to get into the head of one of these high school students who goes on a killing spree. You
remember high school, admit it, for most of us it was tough. Most of us probably had some really bad days
and maybe even a few negative thoughts that might scare people. BUT, we didn’t go on killing sprees, so
what’s the difference between us and them? I just think that shit is interesting.
BUT, what the song is REALLY about, is challenging people who don’t want you to think about it. You
know? You see these conservative gas bags on TV saying: “Well you can’t look at it from the killer’s
standpoint or you’re taking their side and you’re being a douche bag liberal.” I disagree. I think you must
think about it if you want to prevent it from happening again. So I guess writing this song was my way of
saying: “I’m going to think about this, I’m going to give these kids a fair trial and try to see both sides of the
issue. You can‘t stop me, look at me go.” To understand is not to forgive.
When I first wrote this song, I worried that people wouldn’t understand it, that they would think I WAS siding
with murderers. But I would never do that, and so far I haven’t heard any complaints, so hopefully you all get
it. Congratulations on being a thoughtful audience. In fact, with time I would say I’ve come to appreciate this
song even more, and I’m glad I wrote it.
One more thing, the last note of the last guitar solo was totally unplanned. I wanted it to sustain a bit so I
could fade it cleanly in post, but when I hit that note…it just kind of kept going! Just by accident I hit the
perfect feedback position. “Why did time stop??????” I wondered for a moment. Actually the note went on
much longer, but I had programmed my recorder to stop at a certain point, hence, the abrupt ending. I
couldn’t have planned anything cooler.
KILL THE MACHINE
Writing this song was like shitting the biggest ball of twine in North Dakota. My God, it just took FOREVER,
but I felt so good when it was done. Some songs come together in 2 days, others you have to get them out
every 6 months, write 10 seconds of music, then put it away for another 6 months. You should see my drum
program map for this song…what a mess.
The opening riff is actually the first thing I wrote on my first 7 string guitar back in 1998 (a black Schecter A-
7 Diamond Series) which is why it’s in B minor. I saw the video for Kid Rock’s “Bullgod” and thought: “FUCK!
I can write something heavier than THAT, I have a 7 string now!” I wrote everything through the first harmony
sections in one sitting. Then for YEARS, I was stuck, I came up with nothing. Then little by little it came to me.
A few interesting notes: the radio switch to the bluegrass music works every time. In fact, it worked a lot
better than I imagined. I remember mastering it with Rob, and when the radio fuzz happened he almost ran
out of the room to see what was wrong. I have to admit, it’s one of my favorite things I‘ve done, and it seems
to be the favorite of a lot of people. The bluegrass music came from listening to lots of Zakk Wylde in those
days. I really enjoy playing that stuff.
Also, in case you didn’t know, there is an actual drum solo in the middle. That’s me, playing my cheap ass
drums. I was thinking of the end of “Piggy” by NIN, but I didn’t really have the gear to properly record drums,
so it wasn’t terribly satisfactory. So I just put a phaser on it and thought: “Well… that just sounds really
WEIRD, but it sort of works!”
That said, I’m very pleased with this song, one of my favorites.
more to come...