TREVOR: This song was pretty much everyone’s favorite. It was one of those rare melodies that appears unasked for and already completed. It just glided down into my head from start to finish as I was bumming around Uruguay. I was humming it on the beaches. I filed it away till a year later when I was back in South America, this time in Ecuador. I wanted to write something positive to match the obviously happy feel of the tune, and traveling had made me nostalgic and appreciative for all the friends I have met wandering over the years. People come and go in life and I felt like mine was getting crowded with passing faces. Yet some people remain special and you want to believe they will have a permanent place.
The song came together within minutes with the band. Robbie returned from smoking a cigarette, just picked up his guitar and started playing an Ebow melody that came from nowhere just as the song had. He wound up perfecting it till it now sounds like a theremin. We tripled the part just like we did in The Holy Ground so that it would sound thick and slip and slide across the octaves. Eric’s embellishments are the icing giving it a subtle orchestral touch. That piano part is one of his best ideas ever. Very pretty.
ROBBIE: Possibly my favorite High Dials song ever. Trevor played this song for me at his apartment and I loved it straight away but couldn’t immediately think of anything to play on guitar or any ideas for what direction the arrangement should take. That happens sometimes. Later, at a full band rehearsal, Trevor played the song for the other guys just as I received an urgent phone call. I left the room to take the call and while I was out in the hallway I listened as Max and Shane quickly crafted the song’s groove. Inspired, I raced back into our rehearsal space, over to my guitar and found the notes that were in my head. Within a total of about ten minutes, the song’s final shape was 90% complete. Moments like these are what I love best about being in this band; mutual inspiration and almost telepathic communication. That’s what music is all about.
Big Red Harrington
ERIC: When I came into the studio, the bulk of the album had already been recorded; some songs were complete. Trevor had laid down a lot of beautiful ambient keys parts and then I came in to help fill in the gaps in the arrangements. Uruguay sounded great initially. We added a really nice little piano passage to the quiet section.
At a certain point I started noodling around with a baritone sax sample – as a joke at first. We all kind of liked it though and it led to a kind of ironically inspired moment. We’re all suckers for a little horn line, so we called in Red Harrington and bada-bing! We threw it in just for ambience, but it ended up becoming a pretty present part of the final mix.
