7) SUTURES - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Originally titled, "Sleep Elizabeth," Sutures was written in a stream-of-consciousness, diary-like outpouring... it was intended as a going away gift for a friend, Elizabeth, who was leaving California with her family to move to Colorado... I was so proud of how fast it came out of me (not realizing, at the time, that it was my pleading subconscious, begging me to get out of a particular relationship), that I overlooked how inappropriate it was for a happy, going away party. At the last minute, and after some prodding from a best friend, I pulled it, and instead sang John Denver's "Rocky Mountain High." It originally did not have the "Love" chorus, and only had Eric playing an instrumental section.... then ended with the 3/4 postlude of "Sleep Elizabeth." I was always quite fond of that curve ball change-up at the end, abruptly breaking the 4/4 time signature into 3/4..... It sat in its completed form for months, then a couple days before mixing, I erratically added the "Love" chorus, in a fit of late night, lone vocal sessions... which changed the song drastically... then I cut off the "Sleep Elizabeth" portion, exiling it to a hidden track at the end of the album... I like both versions, but I still miss the older version.... I think it had a more poignant sweetness to it... 6) CAROLINA SKYLINE - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - The Carolina skyline is about a literal place in the great wide open.... mother nature's huge expanse of countryside that is a gift for anyone who wants to have it.... like free love... if you want it, you can take it. anyone. it was the fastest and easiest song I wrote on the whole album. I think most of it spilled out in a day with very little effort. Joe was visiting from New York that particular week, and we sat out in a park at night at a picnic table... I played it for him, and he said, "that's it. it's done. don't change a thing." 5) MUNKIE - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - My actual birthday is April Fools' day. Consequently, my whole life, I suspect, has been effected by that fact. My whole life, I have been a big fan of pranking... the gotcha... the leg pull... the straight-faced put-ons.... the grift.... the con... I can't help it, it is in my blood and I was born with it. Born an April Fool. I love the riddle, and the double/triple layered entendre gag.... surprise endings... Not surprisingly, some of my songs also have a sinister, smirky thread, simmering just beneath the surface. I think that same spirit occasionally seeps into my songs like little sneaky devils that pop their heads out with double meanings and sucker-punch puns. The song, MUNKIE, was written on my birthday. I sort of got a "Dear-John" letter... on my birthday. Well, it was actually a phone message. I distinctly recall the gut-wrenching heartache that was kicking me in the pants. I thought it was cruel and heartless, but at the same time, all I could think about was how beautifully poetic and romantically perfect it was to get such a sentiment ON my birthday... ON April Fools' day.... I then tried to imagine what it might feel like if EVERY day was April Fools' Day (like the movie, Groundhog Day). How horribly terrific and brutally, sadistically wicked... getting pranked EVERY day... or breaking up with your true love... every day... 4) SWEETNESS - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - it is funny how some people can change in the blink of an eye... certain pressures or life events turn hot to cold... green to black... night to day.... sweet to sour.... it can be confusing and mysterious and confounding... I once drove up to the mountains on a spontaneous whim to escape the foggy, pea soup sky because there was supposed to be a brilliant star shower that night. it was spectacular and well worth the drive... later, driving home, back to the fog, it occurred to me how the exact same falling stars were still shooting off right above, even though I couldn't see them... you can be looking directly into something, or someone, and think you can know them or see things clearly... but that is not necessarily the case. I still chase falling stars... 3) BETWEEN US AND THEM - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Hearing your sweetheart sing in the middle of the night outside your bedroom window.... everyone's dream-fantasy... your true love proclaiming to the world their undeniable, unquenchable burning affection... in a song... everyone should get to have this at least once in their lives... RECORDING THE SONG Dan and Brendan took it over when we recorded the basic tracks at New Monkey. By the way, we were quite fortunate to get to record at New Monkey. A few years ago, Joel (from the heavenly band, Everest) and Robert bought the place and broke their backs restoring it... it used to be Elliott Smith's studio, so all of his crazy freakish gear was still there and intact. Mike Terry engineered all the sessions and worked all the wonders from behind the glass. Wait, where was I.... oh, so after the initial drum and bass was recorded, Brendan stacked layer upon layer of jangly, chimey guitars from Ben and Adam, and really lifted the whole song into its loungey, chillful, lusterous glory. When we thought everything was complete, and couldn't get any better, Patrick completely wiped us out with his magic and voodoo.... seriously, there was an unmovable Christmas smile on our faces after hearing it. It was like a world series, bases loaded, back-to-back-to-back home run... 2) TIPSY - - - - - - - - - - - I was still a little giddy from surviving my first hurricane... we had been hunkered down in the basement of a house in the backwoods, electricity completely knocked out, drinking wine and playing board games all night, surrounded by incredible beauty, and dangerous giant trees crashing through the roof and windows above..... the next day was spent cutting up fallen trees and clearing roads just to get out to civilization, wondering if I was going to make the next show on the tour. Finally, I was back on the road, driving through the state of Virginia... in the middle of nowhere (sorry Virginians!), the sun was about to come up and I saw a group of gentlemen loading up their Winnebago with all their tackle and gear and rods and optimism. They were setting out on a big fishing trip..... It made me think about how sometimes love is like the art of fishing.... (not that I necessarily know about either)... sometimes you pull in a fish that is undesirable, or too small, or not what you wanted. You throw it back in, let it swim away... I started singing to myself about a lover (the fishy) who keeps getting caught over and over... keeps seeing the same bait on the same hook come down into the water... and keeps forgetting or erasing that it really is a hook and all the times of getting caught and thrown back in... that silly little fish keeps falling for it.... over and over again. Love is for the foolish and forgetful... the suckers and dream believers... we're all just hopeful little fishies.... waiting to get ripped out of this coma-ocean existence... mindlessly swimming around and secretly hoping to get yanked up and shaken.... it's good to be foolish and forgetful... In The Studio... We recorded "Tipsy" in a couple takes. all live, with amazing breakthroughs we'd never heard before. Brendan's growling train romp with Mike Terry running the drums through all sorts of unconventional effects..... Eric's one take pedal steel solo knocked us out... then Rami took everything home and surprised us with some ballsy, tweaked vocals through a warbly leslie and added some other kitchen sink experiments... at the end, Stevie Blacke brought in all the Indian-esque string parts. I remember hearing it for the first time, and fell in love... the original work-mix had all the strings over-amped, and super hot and heavy... and I couldn't stop listening to it. 1) I MADE YOU UP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - It's the leadoff song on the record and the title track.... a song about how the heart wants to believe in something... anything... so bad.... even if it needs to lie to itself to make it true.... or maybe that's true love. the blind hope that is inside of everyone... ignoring reality of how messed up and damaged and imperfect we all are.... and wearing rose colored glasses while elevating the object of our affections onto an impossible pedestal... like a convenient blind spot in the rear view mirror... to make devils into angels... (wait, devils ARE angels)... convincing ourselves they're just fallen or temporarily sidetracked... This is the barest, most stripped-down song on the album. Me, Brendan, and Dan..... drums, bass, guitar and vocal.... a simple, little pump organ cherry on top from Brendan... super sparse... and I love how it starts the whole album off that way... naked... honest... pure... untainted and idealistic.... before the gravity and ugly world gets to it... haha...