| My guitar sound BLOWS! This song was writen in my apartment in Sun Valley, California in 1987. In a way it's quite ambitious and had it been recorded by Queensryche on their first few albums it may have merit. The music 4 track demo sounds pretty good but I'm not going to sit here and try and say you should take it seriously from this final product. But if I can get past the sound quality and youthful deficencies with these Torrod songs then there is that "budding potential" in each. This song is quite ambitios and it has all the ingrediants of my future writing style. The intro is long, the arrangement is out of the commercial norm, the break sections try to flow and connect 2 unique segments and theres an off little end tag. In my demo the finger tapping intro was much smoother and more cohesive to the backing music. On this it's stiff and annoying. The same goes for the break section. The chimes you hear were these huge 6 foot tall pipes that Andy borrowed from the highscholl band department. The thunder was off a sound CD the studio had. I note this because it blew my mind at the time. A collection of awesome sounds- and all on one CD, not on tape! It was just so cool, so real souding. I noted how this song was a "harbinger" to my writing style in Harbinger, but for Jeff, I don't think he's ever written and arranged a song like this again. He had it ready for me when I met with him in his cabin and I was pleased- it was original and unique. As for Andy's drumming, well, he was always outstanding. Though we can find a few timing spots, to which he'll probably blame my scratch takes with him, his future successes speak to the kind of drummer he is. |
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Never Fade. AKA Neber Fabe. I have fond memories of this time. Tom and I had been corresponding long distance from CA to NY and Back. I don't recall who made first contact but I am happy to say that it happened. I think at some point in our correspondence, I had sent Tom some LYNX material along with this weird piano piece I had arranged and recorded vocals to using my Tascam multi-track recording device. Some of the preceding may have sparked his interest but I am unsure. Nonetheless, this point would be the beginning of a long winding journey which would endure music, disagreements, hardships and a host of life experiences which some may never have the opportunity to encounter. But I digress. Never Fade was a lyrical piece I had written before Tom and I began working on the vocal portion of the project which would become Torrod( 2). It just so happened that Tom had made a recording of a musical piece which I found to be more progressive than music I had worked with up to this point. I found it new and fresh. This would be the next step in moving forward with my musical endeavors. I was excited in a time where I really needed. This song did it for me. Writing again with a group of people was therapeutic for me. I don't really recall what I was thinking when I wrote the lyrics but I do recall at the time I was interested in arranging something totally different than I had ever created or heard before. Vocally I pulled it off after using Tom's master version of the song and adding it to a single track of my multi-track recording device, then just working and layering my vocals, I came up with this arrangement which would be "original". I have no idea why I have never written anything like it again. This project and EP recording would also be the re-uniting of Andy James and myself as well as Andy and Tom after previous musical partnerships. The recording process was fun, for the most part, however, it didn't prove to be a good sounding recording even for the time period. Too bad we didn’t have the technology then which we have today. At least we gained experience. You will note, the EP recordings are not my finest work but they are a building block.
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