Pleasing taste, some monsterism.

Posted by Michael at 09:01 on February 15th, 2010.

Ok so I'm going to sit here and listen through this new album "Do You Believe in Monsters" for the first time since I finished it. OK GO!

Why are Things So Heavy in the Future? - This track was originally going to have vocals doubling the guitar line, but it sounded cool the way it was, and I could have potentially wrecked it. Sounds like my guitar is a little out of tune... that was done on purpose.... honest...

Do You Believe in Monsters - This one started life as a song for the Christmas album, and it was to be called "Mysterioustmas", I was going to write the lyrics about the Icelandic Yule Lads, but I decided it was probably too dark and heavy for a Christmas album. 
The chanting at the start took quite a while, I'm saying "sarcalogos" , which I think is Latin for Christ. The lyrics are probably a little too personal to go into too much, maybe I'll tell you next time I'm drunk haha. The little stupid guitar part at 3:00 is supposed to sound like a spider crawling up the wall. The bridge sounds like I'm trying to sound like Devin Townsend, in fact the chorus sounds a lot like the "Eat your beets/recycle" part of a Devin Townsend track called "Earth Day" 
I think at about 4:42 or so I start the transformation from man to beast! Another one of my fascinations with wanting to be a werewolf. I tried to do a death/screamo scream, but I suck at those, so I ended up electronically pitching my voice progressively lower. I wanted to make the longest fadeout ever, and the riff is obviously Sabbath-influenced.

Too Much Information - I wanted to try to make a musical equivalent of spending a few hours on the Internet. You know, being exposed to so much information that you can't retain any of it? 
The second verse is an homage to the early stereo recordings, where they'd put the whole band in the right speaker, and all the vocals in the left. It's hard headphone listening. 
There's a theremin on there, courtesy of the iPhone app "bebot" 
This sounds a lot like "Dick Around" by Sparks really, that relentless vocal thing. That awkward, sudden fadeout was intentional, I've been listening to a lot of Beach Boys lately, and ALL their recordings do this, almost like "Ok shows over, let's get the hell outta here!"

I Don't Really Know You That Well Yet - This one was an attempt to marry Rush and the Foo Fighters, two bands that I have a love/hate relationship with. There's a lot of odd time signatures, but I wanted to make the lyrics very flowing. It makes sense that we don't speak in a perfect rhythm, so singing in odd times is a little easier in some ways, gives you more flexibility with syllables etc. 
Second verse is totally The Police, except when the solo comes in. It's a very 80's solo I guess, I must have did about 10 takes of it, and this is the last one. 
There's kinda like a vocal solo there too, which is the result of not wanting to put in ANOTHER guitar solo haha. 
Lyrical subject matter could best be summed up with a quote from the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - "Why do I fall in love with every woman I see who shows me the least bit of attention?"

Give Myself to Science - Total old-school Deep Purple style rock. I guess the keyboard intro was influenced by the Genesis track "Watcher of the Skies". And the little noisy bit leading up to the main riff was TOTALLY nicked from Queen's "Death on Two Legs". 
The drums for this one were recorded once again by good friend Peter Marin, this was another guitar solo that took forever to get. Soloing over those odd bars is trickier than I anticipated. 
My voice sounds a little burnt, this was the last track I did the vocals for, tired and the higher notes are a little shaky.

I Can't Help But Follow It - That brief massive storm hit on the night of the 11th, so I stuck a microphone out the back door and recorded the rain and thunder. 
The vocals were recorded at 3am in the morning or so. Not really sure what I'm singing about haha. Sounds like I'd rather follow a werewolf out into the forest than stay at home where it's safe.

OK PENCILS DOWN This album isn't any particular theme, it is lacking in humourous songs. Salty has done an amazing job depicting the Toe Hider's more grotesque side, and I've done an amazing job ripping off all my favourite bands!!