Death of an Empire
The first track on Lose This Parade is probably the simplest and most straight-forward song of the collection - easing the listener into a complex record full of unexpected twists and turns. This is the first song for which I tracked bass, and I realized it would be a great chance to do something I don’t get to do often - play bass with some distortion on it! Beyond that I added the lead guitar lines to break up some of the hypnotic churning of the song, but the melody of this one sticks in my head for days on end.
Lose This Parade
Ah the title track - the heart and soul of an album, and those who know me will know that I find title tracks more important than most do! This is the perhaps the most chaotic and complex song on the record. I wanted to make sure the production reflected that. Right off the bat I wanted to enhance the monotonous grunge of Alex’s electric guitar, and give the whole intro an “overcompressed” sound. Alternating layers of driving guitar rock with more ambient guitars and cellos as the song develops, at one point I had the idea that some kind of distorted speech could add to the tension and chaos - you’ll have to know Spanish to know what it says. This is a song you have to listen to multiple times to really get inside of it.
DOA
The third song on Lose This Parade was the first single released from the album, and the first music video as well. The song is one of those great intersections of creativity, unpredictability, and catchiness - an unusual song that would go great on KROQ or similar stations. It’s also a song where the demo recording and mix Alex did was so good that much of it - the guitars, including all the effects, the vocals (recorded with lo-fi wired earbuds) made it to the final mix. All I added instrumentally was a bass, plus replacing the demo drum machine with Danny Thompson’s real drums. I mixed it to highlight all the great stuff going on in the song, and done. A standout and classic tune.