You can listen to it here on your streaming service of choice https://tr.ee/JhH-W4CNEG

Rather than annoy everyone I know with endless social media posts, I decided to consolidate all of my thoughts on this album and it’s songs in this one place.

After learning more and more about songwriting and recording on the last three albums, I wanted to really take the time to make sure I fully developed these songs, more so than in the past. That meant basically, writing the song, recording it, listening to it in my car for a few weeks, then completely redoing it… Rinse and repeat until desired results are achieved. Not a great process for my self esteem, but I think these songs came out better than any of the previous ones. Also worth noting is the kick ass album cover created by my talented nephew Tommy Sheridan.

So here’s a deep dive into each track, since I’ve acquired a fair amount of guitars over the years, I am adding which one was used for each song in an attempt to justify my reckless spending habits.

They burned it down

A friend of mine was over the house and noted that I have some acoustic guitars but seem allergic to using them. Certainly a fair criticism as I have a fondness for heavier guitar driven music, but I was determined to mix things up as I felt things getting a little stale. So what did I do? I picked up a bass and wrote this song. The bass line really dictated everything else but there is alas, a prominently featured acoustic guitar. Lyrically, this I wrote this song after thinking about how differently my wife sees me than how I see myself and it kind all went from there.. Given the lengthy synth intro I figured it would make a good opening track. PRS Custom, Taylor GS Mini (both Drop D)

Found out too late

Like many songs I’ve written over the years, this one all started when I woke of from a bizarre dream where I was trapped in a thin room with no way out. All I kept thinking was that I had to get in somehow so there must be a way out. Musically, this wound up being a combination of two separate songs that I thought I had written. The heavy intro and choruses being one and the guitar riff with 18 different synth sounds at once being the other. Neither song really worked all that well but when I thought that combining them captured the oddness of that dream. PRS Custom (drop D)

Happily distracted and dumb

I was watching a social media thread where two people I know were arguing over politics and i thought how sad it is that most of agree on 80-90% of things but we are all being intentionally divided. Around the same time I was sitting somewhere watching two separate tvs that had opposite news channels on and it was fascinating to see how the exact same stories were being reported according to the bias of the network. It’s sad to see how we are all so dug in on our positions and the thrill we all get from defending them. That can’t be good for us as a society.

Anyway, after looking for one for years I finally found a Billy Corgan signature strat online, when it got home and opened it, I noticed it was tuned down, and I just started playing most of this song out of nowhere. I figured that’s where the guitar wanted to live so it’s down there in drop C. Thanks to my pal Chris Magno for the killer guitar solo.

Breaking at the seams

This one just started as a cool little guitar riff that reminded me of Rage against the machine and/or King’s X. This might be one of the simplest songs I’ve recorded, literally in one session without dozens of guitars and synths on top of each other. In keeping with this album though I had it completely done and ready to go when I listened to it on a flight and realized I hated my vocals. I had recorded them in January when I spent most of the month sick with some sort of cold and you could hear it in my voice. So… I went back changed a few lines and recorded it over again then asked Chris M to add a solo that was infinitely better than mine and there it is. PRS Custom (Drop D)

Can’t see a thing

Driving in a rain storms at night sucks, I’ve literally flooded 2 cars in my life and that was during the day. I had been wanting to write a song not necessarily about an event or thing as much as just a feeling, and as fate would have it. I then spent two hours trying to get home through a storm, so when I got home I immediately wrote down just random non sequiturs which I pieced together for this one. Musically I wanted it to be a bit creepy, lonely and alienating with the exception of the verses where I tried to capture the monotony of the drive. As far as the choruses, the idea is that in any unpleasant situation where you just want it to end, there’s no one there to help, you just need to power through. The noise at the end of the song is actually a piece of the main guitar riff that I stretched out to sound like tires driving through rain. Used my Framus Stormbender (open C) on this one.

Good and bad times

This song drove me crazy. It’s the first song I wrote for this album and I must have recorded 12 times, rewriting the lyrics and melodies every time. I was about to throw it in the garbage around Christmas time but I gave it one last ditch effort, I completely reworked the words, cutting them down by like 30% and add a bunch of harmonies. Not bad, almost acceptable, but I wasn’t thrilled with the way I was singing it so I asked my son Joey to sing it and similarly it wasn’t quite there. After letting it sit for a while longer I then started stitching together his best vocal parts and mine and if finally worked. Lyrically it’s not that complicated which is why I was able to rewrite it a million times. Ibanez JS Series, Fender Stratocaster (both Drop D)

Life will never last

One day I was in guitar center and I sat down at one of the drum kits and started playing what later became the intro to this song. I thought it was kind of cool and recorded it at home and almost immediately came up with the ambient intro part with the organ and guitars. There it sat for a month or so, just an intro until one day I was messing around on a bass (also in guitar center) and came up with the verse of the song. Again I went home and it all came together quickly. For the choruses, I wanted an old school 80’s group of people shouting so there’s like 18 of me in there. One Saturday, I asked my wife if she would go downstairs and yell “days, weeks, months. etc” She was a bit confused bet relented and if you listen you’ll here Lisa in there as well. Gibson Les Paul Standard (Drop D)

Things I’ve already seen

This one isn’t too complicated, I tuned down to C# and found the main riff, then add some wah wah and some more chunky dirty guitars. You’re not going to write a song about how full of shit the world is and make it sound pretty after all. I enlisted Joey to sing and I doubled his vocals, what do you know, our voices sound similar!. Gibson Les Paul Classic (Drop C#)

Sun at my back

One day I was driving with my wife and she noted how for the entire ride it was sunny behind us but cloudy up ahead and what an odd overall look it was. I took that idea and ran with the fact that so many times in life we look back on things (sunny) while we lament we need to do now (clouds). Pretty simple… Musically, it’s pretty straight ahead, I used my open C guitar for this one and again Chris Magno added a kick ass solo. Gibson Les Paul Smart Wood Studio – with a bunch of modifications I had made, (Open C)

You can’t avoid it

This is another one where I wasn’t deliberately trying to write something at all, it just kind of happened. I had decided that a guitar I bought a few years ago just wasn’t for me and when I picked it up to photograph it and create a listing, I just started playing this entire song. I thought that was kind of odd so I sold the guitar anyway since that was creepy. Once I recorded a rough run through of it, I figured the only lyrical theme here would be about those odd things in life that you can’t see or feel but you know they are there. PRS Custom, Taylor GS Mini (both Drop D)

When all is lost...

Well, this song has made me crazy for over a year now. It initially started as a joke, a silly song that I’d work up and probably not even release. I started this in December of 2022 when I wrote the intro part as a potential background song for something at work. It never got used so I decided to try to repurpose it into something else. Over the course of time it evolved and I kept adding to it until it got to a bloated 15 minutes. At least 5 times I decided to just abandon it because it was not only dumb but way over my skis. Eventually I pared it down to 11 minutes or so, but only after rewriting the entire thing a few times.

As for the lyrics, not only is this the fourth version of them but this is 3rd overall concept for the song which centers around a poor schmuck that’s lived his life in an underground bunker. This came about after seeing that creepy WEF guy and reading articles about Bill Gates telling us all we don’t need to eat meat. Yeah I know, conspiracy shit but whatever.

Back to our hero… The government has told him and everyone else that it is the only place to live since the entire world has been destroyed during the climate wars (yeah I know, indulge me). One day he realizes his life is worthless and might as well just go see what the world looks like. Once he goes out and discovers it was all a lie, the people revolt and take down the government. Hooray! Down with the oppressors!

The most important part of this song is that I finally got to use the gong my wife bought me like 10 years ago, so there’s that.

Some other random thoughts on this one

There’s the intro part is meant to be traveling through time into the daily life of the government telling you life is good, everything is fine, stay in your bunkers.

• The main part of the song is repetitive and monotonous to reflect our heroes daily life which is why he eventually decides to give up on it and leave his bunker.
• The choruses are supposed to represent all of the people who are scared shitless by the propaganda they’ve been fed their entire lives,
• The first break faster little bit and the following verse represents the dude contemplating taking his own life by leaving his bunker and going outside.
• The calm part that follows is our main character (he really needs a name) venturing past his hatch but to his surprise the world is just fine. The evil rulers have subjugated all but the ruling class and kept the world and it’s resources to themselves.
• As the song picks back up our friend has now enlitened others and assmebled a small army to overthrow the overlords (hooray!)
• From there another drawn out self indulgent outro is mean to represent that there is hope and even when bad shit happens good things can also happen.
• Throughout the song there are multiple voices that get added to the spoken part, that’s him becoming more aware of his situation and moving from an obedient serf to a rebel.

Gibson Les Paul Smart Wood Studio – with a bunch of modifications I had made, Framus Stormbender, Mitchell Acoustic (All Open C)

whelp… If you’ve made it this far, thank you. I still think it’s hilarious that anyone listens to any of this but I am truly grateful.

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