TREVOR: Words inspired by “We” by Robert Johnson and, I admit, some 3am barstool cynicism. The melody was written in Ecuador. I had just bought a charanga, which is like an Andean mandolin. Since the only two chords I could play well on it were D and Em, I just kept playing them back and forth. In the end we never used the charanga in the song. It’s kind of collecting dust on my shelf.
This song had a difficult evolution. It’s basically two chords repeated over and over, all the change comes from the vocals and dynamics. We had to work on the subtleties of each change in the bass (played by Shane). Robbie created a huge swirling ambient sound with his pedals in the ballroom which sets the mood. Later he came up with a complex 12-string part which was difficult to perfect. He and I worked hard getting it right over several nights. The fact the part was so difficult to play on the 12-string we had led to the band obtaining a 12-string Rickenbacker which has now become indispensible.
ROBBIE: In the past, reviews of our music have often mentioned 12-string guitars but, in truth, we’ve rarely used them. This song has the most eclectic 12-string guitar of any High Dials song ever. I was inspired by The Church and also by Maurice Deebank, the genius guitar player on early Felt records. It took a long time to get a good, clean performance of my part because Rickenbacker necks are extremely slim and my fingers are not. I now own a beautiful “fireglow” Rickenbacker 360/12 and I’m totally falling in love with it. Expect much more 12-string on future records!
