Continuing to explore On So Thin A Line, here's "Halfdone."
James: This song was actually written for my solo shows initially: I felt (and still feel) like I had too many songs based around G chord formations. In a band, lots can be done to work around repetitive voicings; solo, you're on your own. If your voicings are the same all the time, your songs will be same-y all the time. SO, I sat down to work in E, and the rhythm came almost immediately. The first verse was the third verse of the first draft, until I realized that it was much stronger than the earlier part of what I'd written and threw the rest away. A lot of times, I just need to find the template for a lyric: the phrasing, the timing, the rhyme scheme, and then the right words just fit like a puzzle. Once I caught onto the hook, this song came together really fast.
I had the idea for horns, based in part on a Spoon song; Josh came and helped chart my ideas, and then he gave the charts to his wife, Kanako Omae, who proceeded to make them way hotter and, well, good. He called in a couple favors, and Josh Anderson, Ted Blohm, and Mark Allen came in, drank some of our whiskey, and nailed the parts down in no time. Mark's sax solo made us all do Don Pardo impressions. Thanks, guys!
Dan: Songs in E have always been a challenge for me. I know this makes no sense for a guitar player, since you always have that low E to leave open and go back to. But I don't really capo unless I have to, and I try very hard to never capo in the same place that James is. This is not to be contradictory; I feel that layering different voices of the same chord on top of each other leads to very full and rich sound. Anyway, E is hard for me. Too many bar chords, which I also like to avoid. Give me C or D any day.
That being said, once I got comfortable with the song, it became very fun to play. I like ascensions in major keys, and with the bass staying pretty steady, I'm allowed to play some interesting chordal choices over the chorus ascension. It became more of a game of muscle memory than actual musical intuition, and that has actually helped immensely when we rehearse it with me on bass now.
When I first heard the sax solo, everyone yelled at me. I'm not kidding. It came on so strong and reminded me so much of something from G.E. Smith's SNL band, that I was originally not that into it. And I said so. And then everyone yelled at me. So I gave it some time, and now I love it. Great job, Mark! Thanks for making an awesome solo, and thereby preventing me from having to write one myself.
Nick: I totally yelled at Dan. In a Don Pardo voice.
I had a hard time with the "feel" of this song. It's a rock song, but it has a lot of swing to it, and it was a challenge to find the right balance. Josh put on his music teacher hat at practice one day and knocked some sense into me. He helped me "get" the "feel" of this song "." For the recording, I practiced the fills a lot at home to make sure I could get them right in the studio with a click track.
This is such a fun song, and I almost fell over when I walked into the studio and heard Mark's solo blasting through the monitors. It's one of my favorite moments on the album and I hope Mark and all of the musicians who gave us a huge boost on this recording can play on stage with us at the CD release show in May!
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