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Story Behind The Song - Introduction
03 September 2002
Story Behind The Song - Introduction

ARRIVAL
At the time I was making this album I was right in the middle of a tour and was flying a lot. I'm not the biggest fan of flying anyway, and since then and even still now I take well over 100 flights a year(!) I was trying to write a song about the settling of the nerves that you get when the plane finally touches down. I think the melody loosely resembles the German folk song, "Tranen Lugen Nicht".

BITTERSWEET
Nick Menza's dad played the Japanese flute (Shakuhachi) at the intro of this one. Probably my fave song on the album, it's got it all for me, sad melodies and even some burning guitar at the ending. I don't recall writing this one, which means it probably came together in a matter of minutes.

BE
I always wanted to do a tune with the typical 1950's ballad chord progression. This also came together easily. On a mellow album like Introduction, the ending solo section of this tune sounds particularly passionate.

ESCAPISM
This was the working title of the album. I'm happy with the use of counterpoint in the front half of this long piece. The 'meditation-like' section at the end of this song scared the record company (EMI) that released my next album, "True Obsessions". They specifically told me that they didn't want any 'hummmmmmmmm' music on "True?" I believe there is a time and place for that stuff and they were right--the time and place is not on a rock album!! This album, though, like "Scenes" was more in the romantic vein so I think it feels pretty natural.

LUNA
Another 1950's theme, believe it or not. The theme is similar to "My Prayer" by The Platters, and the time signature changing bridge was something that was inspired by a beautiful Vietnamese melody I heard.

MAMA
Kind of an Italian sounding melody, no? On a technical note, the fingerpicking rhythm was the most difficult part to play on the whole album. There's really an art to playing this kind of music convincingly. I probably should have hired a strolling musician from an Italian restaurant to play the basic part; it probably would have saved me a lot of time!

LONELINESS
Another song with the dreaded "hummmmmmm" in it, but I think the mood of it is truly depressingly sad, hence the name. The guitar figure at the beginning was done with many different guitars and the sounds blended to come up with one unidentifiable, big, sad guitar sound.

SIBERIA
The last song I wrote for the album. The album was coming up short time-wise, so I wrote this one at the very last minute in my hotel room by the studio in Redondo Beach, California. A far cry from Siberia, but I thought the main theme had kind of a Russian vibe to it.
 
 
 
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