The United Dictators Of Mars - SONG

Amber Waves

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Music: Mody, Words: Harris

Imagine storms without rain, imagine sky with no sun. Our future's grim now what shall we become. Why has it come down to this.

I remember waking to eastern sunrise. As I opened my eyes I could see everything so clearly. We must restore the sun, we must purify the rain. And return those amber waves of grain.

Behold the child with no eyes, how could he realize. When all is dark still he sees what we've done. Why has it come down to this.

I remember watching the western sunset.
It was something I'll never forget. I miss it so dearly.

Bestow upon us the light and grant us the wisdom we need. To guide the way and keep the spirit alive. Before it's too late, wake up. Don't destroy the earth. What's it worth to you? You can start anew.

Everything about this song appeals to me. There's so much to it from a writing standpoint. I mapped it out on the drum machine but by that time I was moving quite a distance from reality drumming. I just was looking for more ways to be progressive with the music as a whole but a few songs like Amber Waves, Detector Of Lies and some songs which never got recorded to album were a mess from my indulgence. When Brian Blaine finally joined us he really made the songs work from a listeners perspective and this song benefited from that. From a guitar perspective it had alot of my Harbinger signature writing with Todd and myself making thick cords by not playing the same chords. The bridge harmony parts I had sitting around for about 5 years taken from a musical piece I had called "Monster" which had a much slower tempo. It moves between a standard harmony config and octaves. I gave Todd a little lead section to work with before before joining him with a harmony that I consider one of my best. I really like the short finger tapping harmony at the end. Billy was exceptional with his runing bass lines though I wrote the bass line over the harmonized harmonics. I wouldn't be surprised if I steal those harmonized harmonics with bass line for a new song. The build up after the lead harmony and at song's end cap off a song that I think is perfectly structured in crescendo. Nice melody work from Jeff as well and he also added the keyboard parts in the build up sections. Lyrically I like how he flows the sunrise and sunset between verses- he's always thinking, always structuring. I did augment something in the 2000 conversion to CD. During the intro I added the slap back delay because I just thought the intro was too dead before he came in with all the tom fills. It sounds a bit stop-gap but I prefer it.

I wish we were in a different studio setting for the following three recordings: Amber Waves, Comatose and Detector Of Lies. We decided to record these tunes ourselves at last minute after making a poor decision to record with a person who claimed to have the experience turn dismal almost right from the beginning. He had the equipment, the studio and supposedly, the experience. But he could not even get a modern drum sound which took, I think, days to work on. After settling, which we were uncomfortable with but were paying for studio time, I recall arriving to the guitar tracks where much work would be just about complete, albeit undesirable, and then the infamous finger hitting the wrong button recording over much that was completed. I still have that vision burned in memory. This guy just had that fried look about him by this time at night. I could see him moving his finger around trying to decide which button to push. After making his choice, he didn't even realize what he had done to the point where most of what had been recorded was gone. We actually had to inform him of what he had just accomplished. I am unsure but I think it may not have been the only instance. We then called an emergency meeting and it was unanimous. We had to let ourselves off the hook. After little debate, we decided we would be better suited to do the recording ourselves. But how could we do this and make a better product than past projects? Lucky for us, Tom was in the band. He was always the guy that had the means to afford things when the chips were down. He probably had the notion that he was used for this but truth be known, without this "luxury", we may have never learned or gained as much experience as we did. Hell, we wouldn't be able to converse about all of this valuable information. Anyway, After Tom purchased the Tascam 8 track recording device along with the gear we needed, we proceeded to record in our rehearsal space which was large but had little heat in the dead of winter. The set-up itself was undesirable for recording conditions. My control booth was an old classroom closet which had no heat at all. I remember our sessions late at night with the guitarists trying to keep their fingers warm. I remember late nights trying to keep myself warm and trying to sing. It's just not right when you are self producing the vocal tracks with a microphone in front of you, the recording gear in front of that, less than one foot of room on either side of you and you are pushing buttons take after take all the while seeing your breath as you struggle to sing. As resourceful as we were, we were not prepared for this setting. As far as this song is concerned, it was my opinion of the future of our environment and what we need to do to protect and preserve. Wake up call!

Tom's Rebuttle: Yes, I had a credit card so I bought the recording unit with the understanding that the band would reimburse me. When that time came it was one of the many small things that can become devisive in the band. In hind site you can't really divide up a multitrack upon break-up and I don't think I was ever paid back so I kept the unit and it was worth having for recording the "Word" demos and the demos that lead to "Check".

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