I really don't know how to play the guitar. I know how certain notes work to make a chord. I
know a few chords by different rhythms. I base my formula on a song by Grant Lee Phillips. The song
is Bethlehem Steel and appears on the Copperopolis album. The forumla is to find four chords that
work well together and build a strong melody - have a stronger melody for the chorus - keep building
until I think I've said enough - push the chorus again - then end the song.
I brought these ideas to Brett and for the most part all of
the songs remained the same. The only song that was changed was A Dead Giveaway. Brett came up with
a chord progression in the chorus to help give it some extra life. Well, maybe there's another song -
Charles Bronson. Although the basic chords are the same, Brett took the song to another level with
the bass part he wrote - then add his guitar parts over Paul's drums and you have a whole new song.
I think that's it.
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With the skeletons in place, Brett and I worked on finding drum loops. These loops would eventually
change our approach of different songs. The loops for some songs and parts of others so Paul [Ramsey]
laid down the real thing, giving those parts new life. At the same time, we looked for loops, we
looked for samples - some musicial, some noise - that woould work with the songs.
I digress - I wrote the songs in my living room with the TV on, the family around - so there was
always some kind of background noise. I didn't think the songs would sound the same unless they had
extra noise in special places.
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As far as the instrumentation goes, I set out wanting to play everything (except the drums), but as
we got deeper into the process, it became evident that my abilities were limited. As I said, Brett
played both bass, guitar, and the harmonium on Charles Bronson. I won't break the other songs down.
I'l leave it up to your imagination. I will say that most of the delicate guitar and keyboard parts
were played by Brett. I did, however, play lead guitar on one song. Guess which one! I must also
add that Joe Stout (you might recognize his name from the
Always Almost days or as our current live sound engineer) playar hammond on Lonesome Secrets, and a
good friend Sol Flaxman arranged and played the strings for the end of This Is My Halo.
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