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About the songs:

Majorette:
I had this cool riff and i started recording but i wasn't happy with the song because it felt weak and pathetic.. sounded like a bad parody of an angry song.. so i was going to exclude it from the album.. Then the producer in me said "we need to start the record with a butt kick, and this is the right song.".. So I started my little high school research project: "write a rock song". l changed the lyrics, the melody and re-recorded the guitars in the verses and suddenly the whole dinamics of the song changed and it started working in a proper way. The intention was to scream for the whole song, but after a couple of frustrating vocal sessions I realized i sounded like a retard. The very first lyrics were a bit political/riotous and, since this was supposed to be my/our very first official released song, i was afraid of misunderstandings.. And thematically that early version didn't fit with the rest of the record.. So.. i had to sit down and plan a few things.. But, hey, you wanted the motherfucking rock song? Here it is.

Moon:
This is a 2005 song about nothing.. I hate all the lyrics except for the first half of the second verse.. At the time I had a very similar song, with basically the same chords, it was very slow, so for this one I opted for a new wave pop type of arrangement, to not rewrite an identical song.. So here you go, single coils pickups, digital chorus, basic drum machine and my ‘90s old bad keyboard.. I remember recording the rythm guitar while I was peeking at a House M.D. episode.. I always work on my music with the tv on.. But I totally hate House.

Sugarbones:
This is very funny, because this may seem a very serious and complex song, but it’s probably the easiest song I’ve ever written.. I wrote this little progression (D, F#, G), and the ascending (tadada-da,da,da,da..) in 20 seconds with my acoustic guitar, in 2003, and originally that was a joke-song about a friend of mine, with some falsetto vocals a-là the darkness.. Then one year later I recorded a full demo, and in litteraly 30 seconds i wrote all the rest of the song.. This final version has the very same structure of that quick rough demo.. When I have an input than the song comes itself, like digging a hole and let the oil spray up.. This is one of the first two songs I rehearsed/played with Worlich.. I wrote the final lyrics in 2008, watching our latest perfomance and translating the sound of what I used to ad-lib live into actual words.. Easy uh? I spent 2½ hours recording the 35 seconds solo you hear in the middle..
This is the sound of my oldest songs, arpeggios, time switches, minimal singing..

Hell:
This is a simple song written very fast.. Usually all the best songs come in this way, if you have a song you are working on for too long you have to consider the fact that maybe it’s not-so-good-Al (yeah, there are exceptions..) I was jamming in my room and I broke the 6th string, so i tuned down the 5th from A to E and the 4th from D to A, without a tuner, to play bicords, but then I found out that was actually A#..
I just started jamming and.. there it is, in 2 minutes I had the song with the melody..and lyrics too.. An instant hit single in tha bedroom. I did a rough demo and a week later I recorded the basic tracks.. The solo is from that demo, it’s very fucked up, and you can hear that the high strings are very low (weeeooowww), because the guitar was not in tune.. And there’s this strange squeeeeek, a sort of radio interference (a sort of envelope) that i could control physically moving with my guitar around the amp.. I thought it was very indie rock, so i let it. I’m not a big fan of alternate tunings, ‘cause then you have to fuck around to play the song, so if I write a song with a particular tuning then I go back to standard and I find the way to play with it.

Crash test babies:
I wrote the music in 2004, and did a demo with the acoustic guitar and the bass.. I had some vocals/lyrics but they were terrible.. Then I found out that this song had a very dreamy/psychedelic feel, I did another demo to try the sounds and then I started recording.. The structure is the very same of the first demo.. I added the Bontempi organ, some Deluxe Memory Man overdubs, Ebow.. Tada.
Roll up for the Mystery Tour.

Laws of Gravity:
I worked hard on this, arrangements-wise, sounds-wise, lyrics-wise, melody-wise.. Every part is 100% developed, from my point of view.. I had 3 versions of this song: an acoustic version, a Moon-type of arrangement and a straightford poprock version.. The new wave version was very cool but it was too similar to Moon and to Smashing Pumpkins.. People says that even this version, the album version, is too Smashing Pumpkins, so.. In my opinion this is very very weezer.. and i created a Brian Eno soundscape after the breakdown playing with 5 guitars every note of the 5-notes hook with the memory man.. God bless that fucking pedal. And then BAM! the wall of fuzz straight in your face.

Bending Around Obstacles Like an Ocean Wave Hitting a Buoy:
If you had the chance to study stuff like networks and telecommunications (and you are good) you’ll probably know what the fuck this title is.. I was studying and I stumbled on this line on a powerpoint slide.. Cool analogy.. Here I tried to go for a weird mix of sounds and arrangments, in a sort of 70s-album-rock way.. I had the idea of adding the rolling coins at the end when one day I was studyng in my room and i let fall.. guess what? Freaking coins!

Winter Comes Again:
A very simple song.. I can’t remember.. I just did a demo, very similar to what you hear on the record, then I wrote the lyrics, the second verse is a dream I had the night before.. I had to pull down the rolling shutters to reduce traffic noise, because the two guitars are fingerpicked and very quiet.. you can actually hear me keeping my breath, the clicktrack coming out from the headphones, the grandfather clock ticking and some heavy trucks outside.. Then I added the organ and E-bow.. Hermit music.. Originally I was going to add a fade out at the end but listening to the rough mixes I loved the mouse clicks.

Transitoria/Tempus Fugit:
This is the rock-opera song of this album.. Some old and new riffs glued together.. In 2004 i recorded a 45mins jam called "umbrella factory collapse", basically a lot of riffs chained together, and then i abandoned a second jam i was planning called "big pink pig".. Some ideas of this track are from BPB.. I had the idea of doing a 10 mins track when i wrote the very first riff.. I was under the influence of a lot of caffeine when I composed/recorded this, I'm serious, and I was particularly obsessed with Brian Wilson's SMiLE, and the breakdown he had recording the fire section of the Elements Suite, (Mrs O'Leary's Cow).. I listened to the original recordings, not the 2004 re-do.. There's a lot of bootlegs out there, get the Purple Chick version, is the best one.. Anyway.. I tried to condense what I had in my head (hours and hours of variations and sounds) into 10 minutes.. I "wrote" the first verses seconds before hitting REC.. My voice is very fucked up because after 2 completely-out-of-tune takes I was starting to get really angry.., but it fits in the mega-crunch of the guitars..

Japanese Bonus Track:
This song has something in it.. I had this basic riff and I just cut it.. Wrote the lyrics in 2 minutes.. The original idea, when i was still thinking about doing a double album, was to let the final echo ring for 40 minutes..

Recording Chronology
(Nowhere Studios, Ravenna, IT)

2005:
august 27th, 28th : "moon" (electric guitar tracks)
august 29th : "moon" (bass, drum machine and synth tracks)
august 30th, 31st : "moon" (vocals)

2006:
august 27th : "japanese bonus track" (electric guitar and drum machine tracks)
september 3rd : "japanese bonus track" (vocals)

2007:
may 1st : "hell" (drums, bass and electric guitar tracks)
november 13th : "hell" (ebow tracks)
december 1st : "sugarbones" (bass tracks)
december 13th : "sugarbones" (electric guitar track)
december 24th : "sugarbones" (bass track)
december 27th : "sugarbones" (drums tracks)

2008:
january 1st : "sugarbones" (electric guitar, bass, acoustic guitar tracks)
january 5th, 6th, 7th, 12th : "sugarbones" (electric guitar overdubs)
march 2nd : "sugarbones" (vocals)
march 5th : "sugarbones" (electric guitar tracks)
june 6th, 18th : "hell" (guitar overdubs)
june 19th : "hell" (vocals)
june 28th : "laws of gravity" (drum, bass, electric guitar tracks)
july 5th, 6th, 8th, 14th : "laws of gravity" (electric guitar overdubs)
july 21st : "laws of gravity" (electric guitar overdubs, acoustic guitar intro)
july 24th : "laws of gravity" (electric guitar solos)
july 27th : "laws of gravity" (electric guitar soundscape)
july 31st : "crash test babies" (drums, bass, electric guitar tracks)
august 17th : "crash test babies" (bontempi organ tracks)
august 19th : "winter comes again" (acoustic guitar, bontempi organ tracks)
august 20th : "winter comes again" (ebow section)
august 25th : "crash test babies" (ebow section)
december 8th, 14th : "crash test babies" (vocals)
december 12th : "winter comes again" (vocals)
december 20th, 21st : "majorette" (drum, bass, electric guitar tracks)
december 23rd : "moon" (hi-hat track, electric guitar overdub)

2009:
january 17th : "crash test babies" (vocals)
january 18th, 19th, 20th, 22nd : "transitoria/tempus fugit" (acoustic & electric guitars, bass, drums tracks)
january 29th : "transitoria/tempus fugit" (flute tracks, vocals)
february 1st : "transitoria/tempus fugit" (bontempi organ tracks)
february 7th : "BAOLAOWHAB" (acoustic & electric guitars, bass, drums, coins tracks)
february 9th : "BAOLAOWHAB" (tambourine tracks)
february 11th : "majorette" (guitars tracks)
february 12th : "BAOLAOWHAB" (vocals)
february 13th : "majorette" (guitars tracks)
february 14th : "majorette" (guitars tracks), "BAOLAOWHAB" (bell)
february 15th : "majorette" (vocals), "BAOLAOWHAB" (vocals)
february 20th : "laws of gravity" (acoustic guitar track)
february 24th : "transitoria/tempus fugit" (percussions and vocals)
may 21st : "BAOLAOWHAB" (vocals)
june 24th : "transitoria/tempus fugit" (guitar overdub)
june 28th : "BAOLAOWHAB" (vocals)
august 11th : "majorette" (vocals and guitar overdubs)
september 5th : "transitoria/tempus fugit" (vocals)

Blips:

(these were posted in an old site during 2007/2008)

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