“Reeling” from inhaling slowly…
The newest track for “Survived By” is called Reeling. I wrote this one in my head one day as I was sitting atop my throne contemplating my next great movement. Tapping my toes and hands and blathering out a bass line that sounded like something off of a scratched up George Clinton record. It seems some of my best stuff rattles around in my head for a while before I am able to get it to slink out into a step sequencer or a bass or guitar line.
When I went to start the demo I sat in front of Fruity Loops with a beer in hand and smoke in the air and blathered to myself the note structure and transposed as best I could the funky, walkie, bass line and we we’re off on a new one. The boys always bring a fury to a new track, and with something as dancey and upbeat as this it was knocked out after a single session.
Mikey and I had a meeting of the minds one day before practice, I imparted my simplistic view of the beat and he took it and ran with it, adding fills, stops and cymbal work that blew me away! He has a wonderful way of taking a simple idea and adding all his years worth of drum theory to it and make it sound fresh and original with every passing measure.
Aeryn took his typical thirty-five seconds with his eyes rolled into the back of his head with the loop playing and he had it all figured out, lead and all. We recorded his keys a few times, and on the final one I ran him through our guitar effects pedal and worked the wah for him as he banged out a particularly brutal take and we had him set in stone.
Dave was finally ready to step up into his new role as lead guitar player and he and I run special sessions for him so he can take the time to write and retain his leads. After a single session he’d written some fantastic counterpoints that really bolstered the other elements and with a couple hour session we had them.
Booty has a new rig as well, a sample station with glitches, pads, vocal samples, bass drops, you name it, he crammed it on his rig. He gave a really nice one-off performance, and rather than splice and edit it I let it flow. Boot did his backups and I had some fun working with Gsnap to pitch correct his voice, which turned out to sound positively evil as a result. Boot’s voice has a tendency to waiver a little on notes, so when it’s corrected you can hear the modulation but it doesn’t seem to do much other than make him sound robotic and totally evil as hell. Boot and I have a few different ideas for delivery on the backups, and rather than try and change anything I did, I simply split our backups left and right, he did his thing, i did mine and in the end they play off each other really well.
We also did a 4 part vocal for the final line, where each singer repeats the scream in order; Geoff, Boot, Aeryn, Dave moving back and forth from left to right which is pointing to things to come, as each member will have more opportunity for vocals in these new songs.
The final stop is at our producer Nic Heidts’ studio, where he works his magic getting everything to sit in the proper space. He gets so much more out of our sound because he understands how to get signals to stop fighting each other and get our sound closer to the mainstream. He did a killer job on fixing up some of the rough edges with some great effects on the drums. Nic goes out of his way to make sure that everything has it’s place and if it doesn’t he has no trouble telling us to jettison some shit and it works.
All in all this is one of those songs that jumps up and surprises you as a song writer, you’re not expecting much out of a goofy little idea but then it ends up being one of the best things I’ve written this year. I hope you enjoy it, thanks for listening.
-Geoff
LISTEN HERE: http://obct.bandcamp.com/track/reeling
LYRICS FOR “REELING”
By, Geoffrey Makousky
Whatever vessel from slum crime to old castles
it’s a mother fucking repetitious battle ain’t it?
We witness history repeat itself violently
subverted rebels, in every walk of life we got em
it’s a mother fucking curious travesty
that this could continue to happen to me…
Reeling from inhaling slowly
god showed him a way to categorize his pain
you fold it, throw it away
creeping through his days to a young grave
god showed him a way to escape his pain
and wouldn’t you know he took it.
The harp’s playing we got miracles like everyday now
heartbreaking reality is a sober come down
I can’t answer you without my head clear
I’ve got sinking sensations drowning my inner child
with ancient fear.
Fall with me out of the earths gravity
Follow me infinitely.
Produced by: Geoffrey Makousky
Mixed and Mastered by: Nic Heidt
Written by: Geoffrey Makousky, Daniel Bateman, David Erickson, Mike Johnson and Aeryn Emrys.
Recorded at Pophorse Studios September 2010.
