01.20.03 - Some CD Insights
Well now that the CD is off to the printers I thought I would take a moment and pass on some insights into each of the songs on the CD. I'm not going to tell you what the songs are about, I want you to interpret them with your vision, but rather I'll give you an idea what was happening when I wrote or recorded them. So, here we go:

1. The Formaldehyde Song (Down In Peru)
   I originally wrote this song in 2000 I believe, so it's hard to really remember what I was thinking about or doing when I wrote it. When we were getting Catapult together I started rummaging through some old songs that I had forgotten about, and this was one of them. I really couldn't remember the melody very well, so I kind of re-wrote it for Catapult. I like it. It's a fun kind of rock song. It also has a few lines that I just love, but I'm not going to tell you what they are.
2. Everything, But Alone
   This was an extremely last minute addition to the CD. The original fifth song was a song entitled, "For The Time Being…", which we did record as well. The song was inspired by a collection of postcards I bought once in Paris that I now have hanging in the studio. I believe we had only really been playing the song as a band for about a week or two when we recorded it. It didn't even have a "live" premiere yet! About two days before recording we were talking about what we were going to do and Karl suggested that we throw it in there on a whim. I thought that it is always good to have a back up, just in case. That's how it ended up on the CD.
3. Guilty As Sin
   As strange as it may be this is my mother's favorite song on the CD. I have no clue why. It's not the happiest song of them all. She can't stand it when I scream or do anything remotely loud. God bless my mother. Anyway, I do remember quite clearly that it was raining out when I wrote this song, which may explain why it is so very "rainy" sounding. One of the things I like about this song is we're never quite sure what the guilty person has done in the song. It really could be anything. I have my own theories about it, mostly from reading too many Stephen King novels, but theories none the less. I also quite like the Beatles-esque blues feel of the whole song. Being both a huge Beatles fan and a big blues fan this song is really great for me to play.
4. Placate
   Well, I wrote this one for my 2002 CD, Cheaper Than Disappointment. This is NOT that version however. We did re-record it. Although, I have to admit I did use the piano track from the original version of the song. I just love that piano. Karl and Erick both really dug this song, so that's how it ended up on the CD.
5. All For Me (Goodnight Lisa)
   Ah, finally, we come to my personal favorite song on the CD. Sometimes when I write I song I'll get an idea for some chords and maybe some lyrics, so I'll quickly record a demo of them on my computer. One late night I was searching through a bunch of these demos that I had done, and this was one of them. The song was in a very very unfinished state, but I saw something that I really liked in it. So I cleaned it up, and presented it to the guys. It's become one of our most powerful songs, at least in my opinion any way. The "Goodnight Lisa" part of the$title could use a little explanation though. When I present the song to the guys I told them that this was my "Lisa Loeb" song. I didn't mean that the song was about Lisa Loeb but rather I thought it sounded like a Lisa Loeb song. So the song ended up being kind of subtitled after Lisa. I really hope she doesn't mind. The ending of the song which I think really makes it shine came from a suggestion of Karl's. He told me that the song really needed a distinct and interesting ending. So after a few minutes of trying different things out, that's what I came up with. The great thing about the ending, in my opinion, has to be Erick's Paul McCartney inspired bass runs. Fantastic! I also got to do a very George Harrison type guitar solo in the song. I don't know if I mentioned this before, but it's my favorite song on the CD, hence the rant.