UNRELEASED NUMBERS
Below are five tracks that were recorded at the Gallery in Brooklyn back in late 2009 during the sessions that would ultimately lead to By The Numbers. I'll go into a short explanation for each of them so you can get a better idea of where they came from and why they didn't make it onto the final product. None of them have any vocals because we never got that far, but all the instruments are pretty much in place. Anyway, here we go...
I originally wrote this idea on the computer in Prague. It's in a strange time signature (13/4) and never had any lyrics, which made it a contender for an instrument track. This was the only song (other than NYC 05 below) to be recorded by a full band tracking together instead of a series of overdubs. Everyone happened to be there at the studio that night, so we decided to give it a shot together and find out if we could capture anything worthwhile. There's some very cool stuff here, especially Brian Forbes' guitar solo near the end. Ultimately it didn't fit alongside the other songs that were leading the pack - but it was a fun exercise. It was also the first time I had played with a band in almost four and half years, so that definitely counts for something.
I had high hopes for this tune. I liked its energy and thought it could be very accessible. Unfortunately, it never coalesced with the other ideas enough to make sense to include on the EP. I'm certainly going to re-record this song (as well as numerous others) into something more cohesive. Even though you can't hear them, the lyrics are story-based and have a lot of dark humor to them. And good gracious, Aaron Steel played some amazing drums on this track...
This song was written in New York sometime either in late 2008 or early 2009 (I can't remember exactly when). As you'll hear, it's fairly harmless in its current state, nothing of much consequence in my opinion. The words to this song also contain a liberal smattering of dark humor, which I thought was necessary at the time to offset the politeness of the chord structure. A few other story/character-based songs also came out of this period, all of which were fun to write, but didn't quite fit into the overall scheme of the EP. There's definitely a complete project in my head where all these types of ideas exist - it just hasn't make it to print yet.
This song was written in New York in early 2009. The original demo was on acoustic guitar and was also part of the series of dark humor story-based songs that I was apparently into creating at the time (this one has some unfinished lyrics about zombies I believe). We recorded this on the same evening as PRAGUE 39 - much like that track, this one has some weird time signature changes here and there. Overall I really like the structure of this song - if I can finish the words I think it will come together.
The demo for this idea came near the end of my time in Prague (55 out of 57). I'd been writing a lot of electronic compositions and just needed to rock a bit I reckon. And, as with most of the Prague ideas, I wanted to keep it short and succinct. Again, Aaron played magnificiently, as did Dan Asher on bass guitar. We'd recorded everything except the vocals when I came to the conclusion that this was a perfectly acceptable song that just didn't fit with the others. Once again, the lyrics were story-based and not overtly connected with the numeric theme of the album. I'm sure this will be reworked at some point because, well, it rocks.
Anyway, that's it for these ideas. If you have any questions feel free to email me.