TODD'S TAKE ON
THE
MAKING OF CYCLORAMA
These notes were written in mid January through early February 2003
with the February 18th release date in mind. I was unaware that MP3 downloads would be available, much less the fact that many people would end up hearing the entire record through various internet streaming listening parties. This was meant as a "sneak peak" into Cyclorama as well as a few insights, thoughts, observations and what not. Some of the info and descriptions may not be new if you've already heard the entire CD. However, there's lots of bits and info here if you're so inclined to sit through it.
So if you're interested, get comfy and fire up the Starbucks or a cocktail of your choice because this is a bit lengthy. Here are some notes on
Cyclorama
Love and Peace -
Todd
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It seemed like it could be a daunting task on the onset of this project. Sure, this merry unit traveled the globe together and became a well oiled machine playing over four hundred shows together. Now it was time for all of us to sit in a room and stare at each other. Each member with a unique history and career now faced with the challenge of creating new music as a unit. Five strong opinions and five strong personalities. Who knew that things would go so smoothly and that the end result would be so creatively fulfilling. At least it was for me.
Being in a band can be difficult sometimes. It's just like being in a family. When creating, or writing, you just put ideas out there for everyone to bang around or knock it off the table completely. Idea wise, some roads are traveled and others immediately are halted. Feelings can be at stake, compromises made, battles are wisely picked, and at any moment someone might become agitated or downright pissed off. I am personally amazed at how we all "played well with others" as the old school report card used to say. It was a joy to be all set up in a room as a band and say "Well, who's got something?"
We would jam on ideas or someone would have what I call a nugget-----an idea for a chorus or verse. Maybe a riff idea or a particular sound or vibe. There was never any sort of "here's your part from my demo and play it like this" going on. It was a band being a band. All playing off of each others ideas and suggestions. We would record as we were writing. "Is that good? Is that long enough? Maybe there should be a double chorus? Let's just play that riff for 4 bars instead of 8, and I've got a different idea for the bridge. Check this out." Everyone was pitching in ideas. Wow----what a concept. A band working TOGETHER as a band!
The whole process of writing and recording is time consuming, but I really enjoy the process. There are also moments of fatigue, frustration and technical difficulties. These moments were really held to a minimum during the making of Cyclorama. My drum tracks were done in June and October at Capitol Studios in Hollywood. I think I did seven tracks in three days (including the Christmas song) in June and then the remainder over two days in late October. I made sure that I was prepared and my tech Paul Carrizzo was there to help me with all the gear. He was invaluable for those sessions and he made it a pleasure for me to do my job in a relaxed way.
I might be biased, but this collection of music really surpassed my expectations. I voiced many opinions and was very vocal about things that I didn't care for---I even surprised myself at times. Our goal was to make a record that we really truly liked. We weren't sacrificing things to try for radio play or this or that. We wanted to be proud of this collection of songs. Radio is a tough animal these days, and for the most part and there isn't much of a venue for this music to be heard or played. Let's just make a great album. My goal was to have it be a CD that you can play from beginning to end. I didn't want to give it to my close friends and
I didn't want to suggest that certain tracks be skipped.
No---I didn't want that at all. I wanted to tell my friends to let it rip from track one and let it fly. The objective was met, I'm happy to say!
Everyone worked very hard on this, and one guy who worked incredibly hard was our co-producer and engineer Gary Loizzo. His stamina was inspiring and his work was just terrific. He out did himself and was a joy to work with through this whole process. As well, the gang at Capitol (Charlie, Jimmy, Bruce, Will and Paula) are consummate pros. Craig Williams at
Dr. Caw always delivers great creative stuff. The work of a lot of cool people went into this project.
So here are some of my thoughts or observations track by track. I'm doing this after the fact--I should've taken notes as we were recording. However, this is just some info in a light and non technical manner.
DO THINGS MY WAY: (1)
This was a track that Tommy came in with the initial idea. He had a basic chorus melody outline as I remember. We jammed on this for a while. I was thinking
drum part wise, of Alex Van Halen meets Keith Moon for most of it. Then, funky style Steve Smith in the breakdowns and Ringo for the end. I don't think of "stealing licks"--I just try to conjure up a vibe or feeling of a particular style.
Larry had a bad-ass dirty Wurlitzer sound that blended so well with Tommy and JY's guitars. It's hard to tell the keyboard sound sometimes. I'm actually playing the bass keyboard part that starts the track and goes through the whole tune. It was one note and I asked Larry if he'd mind and he was cool with it. So now, I'm a keyboard player!
The Buddhist "Nam-yo-ho-wreng-ge-kyo" things were a lot of fun and came out sort of creepy sounding. We had Chuck on there doing it with us on several takes. It does create this "thing." I put down a 16th note shaker track and an 8th note tambourine track that tried to propel the forward motion since most of the riding was on a washy 20" crash cymbal. Glen had some nice psychedelic bass lines and JY shredded on the solo. That's Tommy at the end of the trippy section. It's an exciting start to the record.
WAITING FOR OUR TIME: (2)
Tommy and JY came up with the initial idea one day when the two of them were laying down some ideas at Tommy's studio. We heard it at rehearsal and I quickly became excited about it. I thought that it was modern sounding (a touch of a Creed power thing, dare I say) yet rooted in the Styx "Lady" type harmonies. We had the intro, verse and chorus down. Somewhere on the road during soundcheck Tommy, Larry and myself came up with the bridge. It's almost Pink Floydian in some ways. I can hear Roger Waters shrieking that section in his maniacal way. I knew then that this was a great composition.
There is a treatment to the drums in the beginning that took me a while to get used to. Tommy wanted the first chorus to just open up and leap out at you, and I now get what he was going for. So the drums are squashed and crunched at the top. The effect works. The chorus kicks in and the guitars are just chunking. Glen recorded his bass part while we were on the road. We were at a studio in Denver. He'd just finished his tracks when a friend of mine called to tell me that John Entwistle had just died. I'll always remember that. Listen to Glen's bass line in the vocal breakdown----very Entwistle like. Kind of spooky. This track came out smokin' and I remember loving the way the drums sounded in playback after I recorded it.
FIELDS OF THE BRAVE: (3)
Larry had many ideas that he threw in the mix. Almost too many! Actually, my favorite nugget of his that we turned into a song didn't even make it through the recording process. But I loved the Queen like majesty of the chorus in "Fields". I also love playing in 6/8 time. This fell together rather quickly as I remember, and before we knew it the song was pretty much done.
All the military sounding snare drum parts were recorded separately from the main drumtrack. I have to give my dear friend Bobby McIntylre (a fine drummer) credit for some of the stuff on this track, as I stole his snare drum idea for this one. The secret for that military "over the hillside" sound is to turn the snare drum over and play it snare side up. The buzz rolls sound grand and quite symphonic leading into the choruses. Next thing was to mic the front bass drum head and play it lightly with a mallet. With some heavy compression and some tweaking at the console we made it sound like an orchestral concert bass drum. Then I took two 19" crash cymbals and put hi hat clutches on them to make hand held orchestral crashes---symphony style. The result of which you can hear in the chorus sections.
The last percussion bit was to record 8th note tambourine, but I wanted a heavier and thicker sound. We sped up the tape drastically and recorded the tambourine part. When it was played back at normal speed, it created the effect that I was striving for.
It's a very majestic track with a very Stygian middle section with the arpegiated B3 organ. JY's power chords have a Townshend like crunch in the choruses.
BOURGEOIS PIG: (4)
This came out of a riff that Tommy would play at the beginning of "Love is the Ritual" when Glen would run out into the audience. Tommy and I cut our parts live at Capitol and it was this fun little jam. Tommy and Billy Bob Thornton became fast friends after they did the Hank Williams tribute at the R&R Hall of Fame. They're both southern boys and they've been hanging out a bit. Tommy came back with BBT's part after a long session at Billy's studio. Chuck made it out for a visit during the winter sessions, so he put a bass part on this track.
It was cool to see Chuck in the studio again.
KISS YOUR ASS GOOD-BYE: (5)
Glen played us the outline for this happy little song about death during a bus ride to a gig. We took to it right away.
It's a song about how we are all going to go someday.......when out time is up!
This took a little time in the rehearsal room to get the right vibe and tempo. I remember working on this tune with everyone late one evening after a big meal. Everybody seemed to think the tempo was too fast. "OK", I thought. We did a take in the rehearsal room and I brought the CD home. The next morning I played it and it seemed so slow! I went back and convinced the guys that we really have to slam this one out---and with our collective fresh perspective it worked like a charm.
Side note: My first snare drum (that was my father's drum) was a Rogers 5"x14" Powertone model with chrome over brass. When I got my first Sonor set at age 10, I traded the Rogers Powertone snare drum for some cymbals. A terrible, stupid move----we all make them sometimes!
Anyway, I had been on a hunt to find a mint or near mint condition Powertone. After some time, I found
one online at Donn Bennett's drum studio in Seattle. I had spoken with him before and he's a friendly and knowledgeable guy. He had a mint Rogers Powertone in his shop and I immediately bought it. The drum arrived and it was in stunning shape. This drum was over 30 years old and it looked brand new. The bottom head, snares and snare cords were original parts. Only the top head was non original. Wow. I used the 30 year old Rogers drum on Kiss Your Ass Good-bye. I really dig the fact that the vibe of this old drum with OLD HEADS and SNARES are resonating on the track!
Back to the song, this really is a workout. I adore Tommy's 12 string solo and Larry's harpsichord bit. Larry had some good Elvis Costello organ stuff as well. Only Tommy and I were around for the Tenacious D session. They were as funny, or funnier than you would imagine. Great guys to hang with and their vocals (and bit) turned out so well. That's Jack Black singing the in-between lines of the bridge. Everyone in the band, Chuck, and "The D" did some shouting in the "You Go First!" section. Glen bangs it out and JY wails on the Pete Townshend power chords.
THESE ARE THE TIMES: (6)
JY really shines on this track. He and Tommy had this nugget for a couple years as I remember. It's perhaps JY's most personal and poignant showcase. From the scratched piano sound at the beginning, it screams of classic Styx. Tommy's 12 string sounds so thick, it could be a 112 string. It has a Pink Floydian quality as well. Glen has some tender bass moments at the top that help in the initial build.
JY again rips on the solo that leads into the vocal part of the bridge sung by Tommy. There Larry slips in a nice little vintage synth moment before the trippy middle section. Tommy did the creepy whispering and we all had fun soundscaping this section.
Also, I remember that we lifted the orchestral bass drum from Fields Of the Brave and manipulated the sound. That is the low soft "boom" that happens a couple times. Tommy also got part of a German opera aria in there if you listen closely. This was a fun track to work on.
YES I CAN: (7)
Tommy and Jack Blades came up with the lion's share of this one. We changed it up a bit, rearranged it and messed with the tempo until it was just right. Tommy and Glen sing so beautifully on this----the second verse kills me every time. A beautiful song with a beautiful sentiment without being syrupy at all. Glen came up with the solo medley and before we knew it, it was being doubled on mandolin and dobro as well as on some keyboards. This was also Glen's first time playing stand up acoustic bass on a record.
I did six different passes with percussion and light drums. I wanted a real "front porch" type of vibe. I started with 16th note shaker and then the tambourine part---which I think is the lead percussion part. There were soft tympani like toms leading into the chorus every time. I added light bass drum every other bar for some bottom as the piece progressed. The bongo sounding part was played with my fingers on a snare drum with the snares off. That really gave it the backhome front porch feel. Lastly, I was missing some "metal" top from the piece, so I added some cymbal scrapes. Using the metal end of a brush, I scraped the hi hat at the top and ending of the choruses.
I can't wait to hear this played live at my wedding in March.
MORE LOVE FOR THE MONEY: (8)
Larry came up with most of this nugget and it came together pretty quickly as I remember. It's a touch dark but cute at the same time. I love playing songs that have this feel. It's very English in some ways and most of my favorite rock bands were from the U.K.
This was recorded (at least my part) in a peculiar way. We had done a demo of this at a studio in Florida. We had some time booked there and Tommy had been really sick. His voice was gone and for the first time since I had been in the band we had to cancel a string of shows. Well, we went into a studio to work on some songs (music only so Tommy didn't sing) and we worked on More Love. We were tracking the demo with a click track and the feel wasn't happening. I suggested that we try a pass "live" with no metronome and see how it goes. It turned out to be the right call---sometimes some things need to breathe organically to feel right. When it came time to record this piece for real, everyone loved the vibe of the Florida demo so much that Gary Loizzo slaved a click track that followed my drum part on that take. When it was time to record I was hearing the full band (Florida version) play "along" with me--- although in reality I was playing to an electronic slave of myself in the form of the click. I was playing to my own live feel! Everyone re recorded their parts after the drums were done.
Larry sang his butt off and Tommy's guitar lines serve the song incredibly well.
The Styx harmonies are kicking on this track.
TOGETHER: (9)
This song almost didn't make it. It ended up being a damn party, and one of my favorites on the record.
I really don't remember how this one fell into place but I know we spent some time on this one in the rehearsal hall. This song just kind of sat there----but at somepoint this giant breath of life was injected into the song. It took on a life of it's own and it starts mellow and builds into.....a big party.
Tommy's vocals kill me on this track. His phrasing on the verses is so beautiful and musical. At times he hints of a Don Henley/Van Morrison phrasing sort of thing. Then by the last chorus he goes to church big time! Tommy also plays a great dreamy guitar solo after the vocal bridge. Glen's bass line in the verse works so well----very musical and contrapuntal to the bass drum. GB also played the beautiful 12 string line leading into the pre chorus. JY supplied the crunch and Larry glued everything together with the Hammond B3 organ.
Drumwise there were some tricky moments. It was recorded to a click track, but it has one of those mid tempo feels where you want to push as the song builds. I get excited quite easily on this one and I had to really concentrate on keeping the feel. The bridge and guitar solo was murder against the click! The song starts with just drums and wah-wah guitar. I was going for a subtle scene change from the opening section to when the bass guitar enters. I played the hi hat on the bell and hit the snare dead center with no rimshots. When the bass kicks in I went to the regular hats and cracked light rimshots for the backbeats.
This track always makes me happy and puts me in a good space whenever I hear it.
PALM OF YOUR HANDS (10)
Glen played his arrangement of Fooling yourself for me one day. I was really amazed at his vocal parts and how "Brian Wilsonesque" they were. It started me thinking-----maybe Brian would be into participating on this track? How cool would that be? I've always had a great
rapport with Brian and his wife Melinda. My fiancee Taylor has been singing and touring with them since '99 and I've gotten to travel with that camp many times in my down time from Styx. So, I thought I'd give them a ring. I was elated when Brian and Melinda accepted the invitation to appear on the record!
We set up a date and time to go over to Mark Linnett's studio in Glendale, Ca. Mark has been Brian's engineer for a long time and it would be a comfortable place with great old vintage gear and microphones. Glen was beside himself at the opportunity to produce this vocal session, much less be in the same room as Brian. I'm sure he's written about his experience with this amazing day somewhere on his website----but he was just beaming.....glowing. When Brian first heard the demo, he looked around and said,
"What's wrong with that? It sounds great." We just wanted his voice, vibe and magic on the track!
So Brian learned Glen's weaving parts, starting from the bottom (bass part) and did four or five parts, each of them doubled for thickness. Glen was so great with Brian as he coached him through his arrangements. After all, Brian is used to dishing out everyone's vocal parts from his own arrangements. Tommy, Larry, Glen, Taylor, Melinda and I looked on with wonder as this started to take form. Brian has a "thing" that is just other worldly and heavenly. I could go on and on. Later on in the day, Brian and Melinda asked if we would be into recording a quick Christmas piece for his website. Well, we didn't need to be asked twice! We swiftly decided on "White Christmas" and we were all in the studio with Larry at the piano. The whole thing was done in about 20 minutes. That was certainly and unexpected highlight. After the session wrapped up, we were talking with Mark Linnett about some of the old tapes and gear from the Beach Boys. He pulled out the original 2 track master of "God Only Knows"-----we each took a turn holding the old box that contained the master tape of one of the most amazing and beautiful songs in the history of music. "God Only Knows" is Paul McCartney's favorite song. Wow----that was a moment.
Tommy put on the lead vocal back at his studio, and all the guys put on their vocal parts as well. Glen had a drum machine enter at the chorus section but I was hearing real percussion and wanted to build it up a bit. I started with a light bass drum---my father's old '69 18" Slingerland. The most prominent drum you hear is an African talking drum that was actually made by a tribe in West Africa. I added triangle, bamboo rods, shaker and a Moroccan tambourine. All that for four bars!
Lots of care went into this one, and it is a thrill and privilege to have one of the most important and influential composers of all time grace our record.
CAPTAIN AMERICA (11)
This is pretty much classic JY ----strong riff with him powering out the vocals.
I remember being in the same room when he recorded his vocal parts. Actually, a majority of the vocals on this record were recorded outside. We would monitor in the studio and the mic would be set up just outside the door of Tommy's studio. Tommy had heard the Paul Rogers had recorded (the name of the famous song escapes me right now) some vocals out in the open air. There is no room reflection, which can be very cool depending on what type of thing you are going for. Anyway, it must have been windy or rainy the day JY did his lead. I sat in the room reading a magazine as he sang and it was hard to concentrate on anything I read because his voice was so, so very loud. He really pushes air out of those pipes of his.
JY supplied the nugget and this came together nicely. We had met Peter Fonda at a gig in South Dakota and I know that JY was using a bit of that for the lyrical inspiration.
It's a fun straight forward rocker with a nice "live" ending. The drum part was a first take as I remember. I enjoyed starting the opening drum fill on the "&" of one----it seemed quite natural at the time. A couple of my drummer pals seemed amused by it anyway.
KILLING THE THING YOU LOVE (12)
Glen had written the lyrics and basic outline back in 1994. It was originally entitled "Lennon's assassin." When we were putting this together there was much debate regarding the title. The song IS NOT about Chapman-----Chapman is used as a metaphor. Larry and I felt particularly strongly about not giving the illusion in the title that would give that murdering SOB any sort of glory....for lack of better words. We didn't want it misunderstood from looking at the title list. I think it works as a metaphor within the song structure. Anyway, once again, I'm sure Glen has probably well covered this in some forum somewhere.
This came together pretty quickly as well. It was a matter of getting the flow with the retards and time changes from section to section. It took a bit more to perfect that "guitar army" middle section with the time signature changes.
Larry's piano performance on the recording is brilliant. It's quite haunting. The piano was done at Capitol---the same piano that appears on tons of famous songs. I think that Bruce Hornsby did most of his "The Way It Is" record on that piano. I love the tom rolls with mallets into Larry's piano before the 2nd and 3rd verses. It has a "Love Reign O'er Me" vibe from Quadrophenia-----one of my all time favorites.
Tommy and JY loaded up on the guitar army section with JY soloing over the 2nd phrase. I have no idea how many guitar tracks were used on that section......16 maybe?
The drum part was played at once with no overdubs for that section. I used the auxiliary hi hat and banged out the quarter notes on it, freeing my hands up to play the military sounding rolls. I also used three different 20" cymbals for saturating crashes and big cymbal rolls. They were a Sabian 20" AA medium crash, a Sabian HHX Evolution ride (as a crash) and my father's old Turkish 20" K.
Glen played and sang beautifully, as he is apt to do. Great vocal, and I really love the third verse.
ONE WITH EVERYTHING (13)
This epic piece was really something to work on. There is definitely a tip of the hat to the prog/art rock side of the band as well as the whole old Yes, Genesis, ELP genre.
Larry had this 7/8 time nugget that we used to jam on during soundcheck. He would blow really great solos over the form. We just started piecing things together that fit the song. We came up with several sections and it was a matter of making the tune make sense and not become some overblown linear thing. At one point we actually had a marker board with all the sections written on it trying to visualize the form. Someone suggested that we should trim the fat and cut the song down. Not to blow my own horn, but I think Larry got behind me when I conveyed that this won't be "single material" so we shouldn't try to fit something like this into a four minute format. Once it was decided to keep it a real player's piece, we dug in and came up with the form and had a blast with it.
This was tricky to record because of the various tempo and time signature changes. JY and I labored over an MPC60 machine and programmed a click track that took us through all the changes. The click disappears at the retard near the end for the more grand and slower chorus----that was done without a safety net. Tommy and I recorded our parts together at the same time and all the other instruments were added later.
Tommy starts off with a bad ass baritone guitar sound that works into a pick scrape and snare roll with double bass underneath. Most of my drum part I left up to improvisation as I really wanted it to have that "on the edge" sort of vibe. I made poor Tommy play with me on many takes until I was happy. I think he was happier than I was when we finally got the take.
Larry used vintage synths on this one (as well as on most of the record.) I remember a Memory Moog and an OB8 sitting by the Hammond B3 with a giant Leslie cabinet. He sure put them to great use on this track, as his playing is magnificent. It was hard to pick which solo/medley take to go with because they were all so great.
Everyone in the band really shines on this track. There are great layers and textures from all the instruments and vocals. At present, this song is not in the live set---but I hope at some point it will be.
GENKI DESU KA (14)
Tommy came up with this little bit that was supposed to be a 40 second piece that faded in and out, strung between two other songs. We used a groove from my drum loop CD, "More Than Styx". The drums were from the sample CD that was recorded in 2000 by Kevin Elson. It's one of the hundreds of grooves that are on the More Than Styx set.
As the guys were putting this together, it sort of took on a life of it's own. It was too cool to be so short----it had such a peaceful, trance like feel, but organic at the same time. It became apparent that this was a modern day "Aku-Aku" that would send the listener off to a lovely place at the end of the record.
Tommy phoned up his pals John Waite and Jude Cole to come over and lend their talents to this track. They both sang enough cool bits to make this track 10 minutes long. And that's Gary Loizzo singing the, "Won't you sing with us now," part. I'm glad he got a line on the CD! I love Waite's lines as the song winds down. Both Jude and John are amazing singers.
Genki Desu Ka means "How do you feel? Feel all right?" Genki Des Ne means "I feel fine." These are the loose translations, mind you---I'm not a Japanese interpreter!
The rain was recorded at Tommy's house simply by placing a microphone outside his studio door as a damp rainy night fell upon the Hollywood Hills. The frogs were recorded by Larry on his mini disc recorder weeks or months earlier up at Tommy's. They are Hollywood frogs, indeed.
This track always puts in a light mood when I hear it. When I first got the mix of Genki, I think I played it 4 times in a row while driving around sunny Los Angeles.
What a great way to (officially) wind down the record.
"HIDDEN BONUS TRACKS"
Jack Black and Kyle Gass from Tenacious D graced us with several spoken word bits---all totally improvised. The bit we used is a gem and really displays their improv talent.
Very funny, very clever, and totally off the cuff.
The Chosen One was a bit Tommy came up with while we were in Florida. A nice piece with a nice sentiment. I had forgotten about this ditty when Tommy pulled it out at the end. I think it was one of the last things recorded for the record.
Well, there you have it. Thanks for going through my meandering drivel---and I hope it wasn't a laborious experience! We had such a great time making this record. The boys in the band and I truly hope you enjoy this music!
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