Recorded Summer 2006 in Huntington Beach, California.

I'm surprised that I was able to conceive and execute this song prior to ever taking LSD or heroin, as it's lyrics and musical essence seem to take strong queues from the psychic states that each of those substances are famous for bringing about. And yet, that is the reality (though, granted, much weed was smoked in the writing process and I had occasion to take my first hit of acid not long after this was recorded.)

I believe the obvious Brian Jonestown Massacre influence present in this song was the result of listening to some tracks by (former The Strangers bassist) Suren Yegiazarian had recorded in his parents apartment. They had this wondrously drugged-out, blissful quality and I remember them sounding almost as if they had been slowed-down mechanically, with the tempos seeming unusually slow and the vocals sounding almost unnaturally deep. I was probably emulating Suren's stuff, to a degree, consciously or unconsciously, I can't really remember now. Like I said, I was smoking copious amounts of weed at the time.

The production is actually very "right" on this track. The rhythm guitars sound rich and full, the programmed drums sound as natural as I've ever been able to pull off, the keynote arpeggio that graces the chorus is clear and stately, and the whole mix, while deliberately hazy and heavy on the mids, is exceptionally well balanced given the circumstances. I don't know how I got my voice to sound this way; it sounds like I'm heavy loaded on heroin, almost like a slowed-down tape. I really like the effect it has. Lyrically, it's simple but very open to interpretation, vaguely cosmic but with clear strains of Deconstructionism -- I had been listening to a lot of lectures on Derrida, Foucault and others, and continuing to read Baudrillard at the time, and I am pleased that I was able to reflect some of these influences in lyrics dealing with ideas rather than solely those of a personal nature.

There's nothing particularly remarkable about this track overall, but each of the individual elements are all done well, and the contrast between the spacey, heightened chorus and subdued, nodded-out verse give the piece enough dynamic to make it compelling. And I'll bet you wouldn't have guessed the drums were fake had I not mentioned it here. Not that I'd advocate picking up any new bad habits, but I do hope some current user out there gets loaded to this song and finds it to be as good a compliment to their nod as I imagine it would be. I'm afraid I missed the opportunity to do so myself and it's probably not worth re-opening that Pandora's box just to fulfill such a trivial fantasy.