I love this track. This is a Frankenstein of a tune though. It was written, rewritten, and written again. This is one of my favorite collaborations I have done with Mike Naydock - great lyrical images in there. "Time is like a melody with notes as blue as veins"... that's classic Mike.

This song is definitely a studio creation. Paul and I sprinkled tracks on this forever. There's a drum loop, piano, banjo, electric guitar and a kitchen sink full of other stuff. I tracked my vocals 22 times for the gang background parts in the bridge. At one point the song was completely re-recorded from scratch. A lot of musicians shy away from record production. The argument is 1) we won't be able to recreate it live and 2) some of the "soul" of the music gets lost in the recording process. I tend to disagree with that. I have heard lots of soul on Pink Floyd, Beatles, and U2 records. I love Death Cab For Cutie's production style too. There are tons of other examples.

Over the years we have tended to let songs and recordings grow organically in the studio, which I feel is the best way to go about it. As long as it works, there is little to no discussion about whether something is or is not our style. However, in the end everything we have done sounds pretty compatible to me. I look at it like being a chef. I just try and make it taste good. If I wouldn't eat it, I don't want to feed it to anyone else.

Unfortunately, many of our advisors prefer the chili we used to make in 1995, which is always the curse of any musician who ever had fans. Nostalgia is a bitch for creative people. But no fan would have ever suggested Paul Simon to make "Graceland" or U2 to make "Achtung Baby" or The Beatles to make "Sgt. Pepper". A musician has to go where he feels drawn to go. Sometimes you end up in a new world, sometimes you end up in the sewer - the process is the same in both cases. You just never know until you get there. This is true for big, enormous bands like Coldplay or humble independent groups like The Badlees.

Neil Young said recently, "Whenever I try and preconceive a record of mine it sucks." Neil Young was sued by his label for making records that didn't sound like Neil Young. If that ain't badass I don't know what is.

   - Bret Alexander

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