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PIECES OF ETERNITY TRACK BY TRACK!!!
I recorded a demo of this at home, and most of that demo ended up in the final track, as we replaced just the drum hits (Skube and Myself both did these) and clean guitar. Good fun for a "thrash metal guy" to be able to do something this (apparently) unconventional - that was the theme for this album if there was one - for it to be totally honest and not limited by anything.
FIRST BLOOD - This track was one of the last ones to be recorded, and was a lot of fun to bang out very quickly. I remember it being very natural to record, and how much it came to life when Skube played on it - totally keeping it down and giving it just what it needed!!!
In a way this is reminiscent of the old Jigsore days in that I'm trading off solos with Mr Mathew Szkup - great fun to do!!!
(I CAN'T) START AGAIN - This was written in maybe the early 2000's where I was exploring a lot of the older rock n roll from the 70's, and was my attempt at writing something along those lines.
I remember we rehearsed this one for a couple of afternoon sessions in Dale's front room, and that there was lots of laughing and goofing off - the kind of band mateship I hadn't really experienced for a while with the whole move to Melbourne and everything.
We played the basic track live and added bits later on which is how pretty much all of the drums and bass for the album were done.
SOUNDTRACK - There's a line in this song "my plumbers crack, and the brand of my undies" ....don't ask!!! Anyway, the "crack" lyric was to be sung by a whole bunch of background voices which were the Szkup brothers overdubbed a bunch of times. Holy shit I haven't laughed so hard in a studio for a long time!!! If only the camera was rolling!!!
OCTOBER 22 - When I moved to Melbourne in 2004, money was something I absolutely did not have haha!!! I took the first place I could find to live that was near the city which was basically a room and a toilet, which is called a "bedsit" or "studio" appartment here. It was so confined and with such thin walls that to write songs I'd basically have to play acoustic guitar very lightly into a microphone and "speak" how I wanted the vocals to go. This was the first song I wrote like this, and also something different for me as a writer. I usually play this one live at acoustic gigs.
TRANSITION - This is a tribute to loved ones who are no longer with us. It could very loosely be described as a musical representation of what this means to us who are left behind.
The guitar solo, which funnily enough is one of my favourite ones I've ever done, was as I recall a first or second take, walking back to my seat in the control room. At the end I said "or something like that", while Skube and Stew said "EXACTLY like that"!!!
TO A SCREAM - I had most of this song around for a long time, but was having trouble thinking of a solo section. One day I had the crazy idea of just inserting this other jam instead of a solo, which of course ended up being just what it needed. That half time riff was something that came from jamming with Colin Mahoney and Mathew Szkup quite a while earlier. Tape was rolling which hardly ever happened, and I happened to hear it later as I owned the 4 track, and liked it. Reworked a little bit and it was a done deal.
Great fun again trading off solos with my Bro on this one. It goes Skube, Me, Skube, Me.
LOST SOUL - My good friend Clint Reid for a while would send me these writings and instruct that if I have any ideas to put any of it to music, that I should go for it. Most of the chorus of the song came about from this, and really inspired the rest of the lyrics.
One of my favourite guitar solo sections in this song with some huge appreciation of Doctor Brian May going on. Was real happy getting to use a real acoustic piano on this one which brought it to life on so many levels.
INNATE SELF DESTRUCT - Another one featuring lyrics from Mr Clint Reid. I remember really trying to experiment with the idea of having different styles within the one song after being inspired a lot by Bumblefoot's "Uncool" album when writing this one.
This was another one of the "Dale's front room" songs, with endless amounts of banter. Totally slamming drumming, and I remember being real impressed with all those fantastic basslines Dale came up with for the song, as the only one I really had was the major key thing in the choruses. Great vocals by him on the heavier section too.
TRIBAL EAT POP SLOP - This was another Kitaro inspired thing that takes a couple of turns. Was also from "Dales front room", and it must be noted that on pretty much every take, there would be some giggling or hysterical laughing - some of which may be evident in some of these final mixes if you listen closely. Often this was instigated by the bass man - infact it usually was haha!!!
I had the other guys record a couple of tracks of the "how now now now now" chanty bits as well as doing 5 or 6 of my own. Was great to be able to do, as the last time I had been in the studio was before digital, and there was never enough tracks to do things like that.