Balance Lost
The Plan Is To Get A Plan notes:
Parasites Attract: It wasn't meant to be like this, the original idea which formed when I was feverish and phlegmatic in Philadelphia had lyrics and a flimsy minor key chord progression. When it actually came to recording it I changed my mind and decided to do some upbeat Foals style looping and I was so pleased with the results that I forsook the words in case they tainted what had actually turned out quite nicely.
Breaking Sky: This was recorded in Toronto in the basement studio of Worldly Self-Assurance and BL/BR collaborator Melvin and actually has live drums. I'd wanted to write a song with this title ever since my friend Endaf played me his song "Malu Awyr", which means "talking shit" in Welsh but literally translates as "breaking sky". The challenge in week 1 of FAWM was to write a song about a photograph and I started singing about stuff I'd seen when I was in the shower at my friend's house in Dallas. It's funny how you try and write a particular title without success for years and then without even trying it just pops out.
Your Cock's Hanging Out: This was another song I'd been planning to write for years. Way back in my teenage years Mike told me a long-winded joke which had this as the punchline and during a long, wet walk through the wilderness on Christmas eve these verses kept materialising in my brain. This is probably the only time I have ever written music without having an instrument in my hands, but singing the words to myself it was clear that there would only be four chords needed and as soon as I picked up my guitar I pretty much played it straight through as you can hear it now. The only challenge was making it not sounds like Status Quo, I think I did okay.
There's No More Where That Came From: This is a tribute to the Little Explorer who played their last show on June 7th 2008 in Derby which I missed and only found out once I'd reached Hong Kong. The disappointment was offset slightly by the availability of their song "Spares", but that song does not inform my one as much as the roster on Slumberland Records which I became aquainted with during my brief stay in London, Ontario. The words were written first in Philly, I settled on the music during my second stay in New York, but the title had been at the back of my mind ever since that fateful day back in September.
Sorry To Inform You: Not a FAWM track but my second submission to Song Fight! as Balance Lost since abandoning TMK. This is a combination of "Scenic Pastures" by the Archers of Loaf and "100,000 Fireflies" by Magnetic fields with a ukelele thrown in for good measure.
The Plan Is To Get A Plan: My attempt at imitating Life Without Buildings, and possibly not my last one. This was one of a list of titles I wrote down when brianstorming in San Diego, and has since become my motto for spontaneous shenanigans. The guitar was written in the Celine Dion room at a hostel in Toronto and the lyrics were streamed over a couple of days during that period and applied pretty much unedited.
Parasites Attacked!: Written during my particularly productive ill period in Philly. I was stalling on my FAWM and so formed a Plan B, to write all the remaining songs about monkeys and hence guaranteeing a brilliant album. Unfortunately, after this song my attention waned and I resumed writing about other trivial matters like love and stuff.
Finding New Ways To Say That I Hate You, Celine Dion: The sequel to last year's "Pop Thatcher" and inspired by room #43 at the Canadiana hostel in Toronto which I was forced to stay in against my will. Brian Adams should count himself lucky he's been spared my wrath, but at this point some questions have posed themselves: 1. Should I continue this series? 2. Is anyone taking me seriously? 3. If Celine Dion were to hear it would she take it personally? 4. Do I care either way? I think the answer to most of these questions is a particularly unhelpful "maybe".
Will I Ever Be Sorry Again?: The only comforting thing about missing Plans & Apologies last show was that, unlike for the Little Explorer show, I was probably doing something way cool at the time, and my excuse for not going was much better. I still get sad when I think that I will never hear a new PandAz song again, and although I like this I'm a bit ashamed for trying to write a tribute that cannot hold a candle to most of that band's output. This track was the second song recorded with Melvin's help in Toronto, and considering I only had a very flimsy idea of what the structure would be at the time it turned out alright and leads nicely on to....
San Dimas High School Football Rules: Who wouldn't want a song with this title? Certainly not The Ataris, who I recently discovered have a song called this. This is basically three or four unconnected ideas drawn out and strung together to try and sound like Nottingham's Souvaris who I consider to have written one of the best albums of 2007 in A Hat.
Angela: Angela works at a hostel on Broadway and although she is lovely this song implies a lot more than is strictly true in it's confessions, it just sounded sweet so I used a bit of umm...emotional creativity. This is not a song I had planned to write, but once boredom had induced one line, and then a second the song seemed to spill out whether I wanted to or not. This is another example of me finally learning that using very simple music is often conducive to having a much more effective set of lyrics.
A Love Found Wanting: I don't know why I wrote this in a way. It's an anthem for those caught in relationships that don't work any more. None of it is drawn from personal experience, but is probably mainly inspired by watching couples on the Greyhound since that is where the lyrics were written, from Syracuse to Buffalo.
Cherry Picker: This was recorded at fellow Worldly Self-Assurance bandmate Glen Phillips' house in Hayward with his 12-string acoustic guitar, written around the same time as "Your Cock's Hanging Out" (possibly the day before) in Taupo, NZ. It is for the most excellent Pei Lin who helped me buy a car in Christchurch as well as teaching me how to make okonomiyaki. I feel bad because at the same time she bought a dud and I was long gone by the time it broke down, but everything worked out in the end. Musically, it's very much inspired by Sun Kil Moon's April and is unusual in that it is one of the very rare times I have written a song by request, although, as the song states, it probably wouldn't have happened if the idea hadn't been kickstarted by some friendly ducks.
All songs recorded by Pete except 2 and 9 recorded by Michael Wickware.
Artwork by Pete
Thanks:
Glen & Kari Phillips, Levi Hollandsworth, Michael & Roxanne Wickware, Jackie & Kim Henry, Nadine & Alan Hooper, Matt Hayward, Dick Innocent.
Word to yo motha's (in reverse chronological order):
Miranda MacLean, Alex Partida, William Larsen, Zachary Wilmes, Or So It Goes, Arjen van Schuppen, Ian Shaughnessy,
Wiggles, Martin Turon, Ken Mahru, Mike Loubardeas, Robbie & Meike (wherever you are), Louise Ruffell, Paddy, Gerry, Simone,
Ellen, Christina, Dorothy, Dan, Jan, Stefaan, Eli, Meike, Cliff Hummel and a whole bunch of people I don't remember,
Henriette Weegh, Suzanne Schumann, Chantal van der Velde, Nike van Essen, Sam Weller, Stefan Paans, Evan Mertens,
Stuart O'Connor, Lee Seung-hee, Shingo Kishihata, Ou Yang Pei Lin, Nape of Jade, Noiraud, Victoria Gamble,
Ashley A. Woods, Yuko & Hiroshi at Bar Hobo, Hideo Taniguchi, Tatsuro Noma, Sutoshi at Kobe Dear's, John Sutherland,
Lachy Shrives, Peter at Cloud 5, Ryu, Yo and Kei, Smokey, Josh Miller, Chris Frankish, Lars Nitteberg, Mikey O'Dyer,
Chris Morris, Oliver Savage, Ryan Harding, Andy Hill, Karl Booth, Lucy Clark, Tina Jethwa, Gary Ford, Katy "K-hole" Turner,
Michael "Mushies" Hepworth, Dorin Gabai, Efrat Luboshitz, Suvituulia Taponen, Kush, Jordan Brown, Kareem Hammad,
Marcella Munoz, Steve Harmon, Xiu Xie, Qing Chong, Guo Yuan, George Williams, Mathilde Finne, Michelle Bjornstrom,
Za Cai, Zhong-Yu Qi, Wu Qing Ban, Pu Yi Xiao, Li Ji Lian, Lin Qiu Ye, Chen Wen Jing, Joe Tran,
Pernilla Ostlund, Fredrik Nilsson, Catriona Spence, Sebastian Weber, Rob Ryan, Simon Taylor
and all the nameless faces and faceless names I've forgotten...
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