Every year my wife’s friends got together around Thanksgiving for a friendsgiving dinner. As the years progressed, more and more children began showing up as people had kids. During Thanksgiving 2018, I developed a migraine, and all of those infants and toddlers cut right through my skull. I asked my wife if she would be okay catching a ride home from someone else, because I had to go home.
When I got home, the lights were off throughout the house except for our Christmas tree in the living room. I took some Excedrin and roamed down into the basement and sat at my desk and waited for the pain to subside. And just as it did, a riff came to me. It was like it was always there, but it was being drowned out by the static of a migraine.
I picked up my guitar, noodled around until I found it on the fretboard. Then I found another part. And another. Then I found the drums, an electric piano part. By the time my wife came home, I had a demo recorded and was lying on the couch.
It was, at the time, my favorite thing I’d ever written. And I was happy enough by the demo that I decided to just leave it. So for a couple years, that was all I had of that song. But the timing of the bass and guitars towards the end was just a tiny bit off. And the dynamics were too drastic. And the mixing felt lopsided. I knew it could be recorded much better if I decided to do so.
So in 2021, I did.
And in the process of tracking it, I came up with some more parts. I wrote a subtle trombone section. I threw in some timpanis because I could. I experimented with different guitars in different parts and ended up using both my Gibson SG and Ibanez semi-hollowbody. I played with different basses, but coming back to my short scale Squier Jag with Quarter-Pounder pickups.
So now, almost two and a half years later, the song is finally complete.
This song was recorded in my basement in Des Moines in March of 2021. The cover photograph is by Matthew Feeney on Unsplash. All guitars and bass were performed my me, and I also programmed all the drums, keys, and synths.