The fourth song from the upcoming Ascent CD is "Talking in Circles."   You can hear it now by going to AscentMusicOnline.com .  The song will begin streaming as soon as you enter the site (for now).  Later, you can choose "Listen" to hear it.  Or you can buy the song on iTunes, eMusic, et cetera.

I will be the first to admit that this a very strange song!    There's a lot going on, much of it just under the surface.   I didn't shy away from letting my influences show, and mixing them all together.       

I wrote the lyrics about four years ago...   I wrote the first  line, "talking in circles, deflecting the blame," in my notes  during a business meeting (disclaimer: a small group of people at a previous job).  Believe me, this was a reasonable observation of what was going on in the room at the time.  It was one of those meetings where everyone is talking, but nothing is communicated, and no-one is listening.   Like many lyrics I've written, I start with a kernel of  truth and then expand and exaggerate it into something else.   I started to think, what if the whole world is run like this...   So the lyrics quickly spun out of this idea into something that's almost science fiction.  Or is it?   The idea of marketing pitchmen and CEOs hiding in bunkers from the dangerous effects of their ill-advised products seems especially relevant at the moment.  Right, Mr. Toyoda?  I still chuckle at the absurdity of lines like: "Some paid with their dignity, some with their lives, for company dinners and new trophy wives."

The "circle" idea also informed what the music would become.    I wanted to create a circular pattern that repeated around and around.  A propulsive pattern that sounds like something running out of control.   I've always enjoyed these kind of patterns where it might be in three or it might be in four or it might be in six...    I remember that when I was first creating it, I was using many more layers of circular patterns, but I eventually realized that it would be too dense to make an actual song out of it.    

The chorus was always a struggle.  I knew that the song needed a chorus, but I didn't have anything I liked.  The original chorus had the words "I need to feel that I'm human."   It sort of made sense with the rest of the song, but it always felt forced.  I had that version of the song in my brain for a long time, but I didn't feel like it was worth doing.  Only when I stumbled on a new chorus did it work for me.   I always meant for the chorus to sound huge, like the last chorus in the recording, but I realized that it was more effective to strip it down and then build it up later.   Up until nearly the last minute, the first chorus was going to be a dreamy-sounding synth thing...  but I suddenly remembered that I had recorded some other electric guitar parts for it months ago.    When I tried this one, Christina and I both liked how jarring and gritty it sounded.

My original demo of the song was quite robotic in the vocal department - and badly autotuned!   Christina's vocal recording brought a bluesy-ness and an urgency to the vocals that I could not have contributed on my own.    She also added the higher notes that happen at the end of every other line, making the melody more dynamic and memorable.  The echo and other vocal effects change continuously throughout the song, which was fun to do.  

The guitar solo section in the middle sort of wrote itself, and was added spontaneously one day.  The chord sequence just came out of nowhere, and it came together right away.  I love it when that happens, and I really like this section of music.  Listening back to just the chords and the bass, it could be its own song!    I recorded two other solos, but they aren't all that great.

The "ambient" end section of the song features an eBow loop that I recorded one day while practicing.  It wasn't done with this song in mind at all.  When I practice by myself it often sounds a lot like the closing minutes of this track, and sometimes I'm inspired to hit the "save" button on my looper pedal.  It was a stroke of luck that I thought to save this one and add it here, because it think it provides some balance and space, and just the right commentary on what comes before it. 

I recorded about twice as much instrumentation as I needed for this song.  I did countless layers of HandSonic percussion, and the various bits bubble up to the surface at different times - tablas, congas, toms, and other percussion parts with various effects on them.   There are three separate eBow tracks, two of which play throughout the entire song.  The acoustic guitars were each recorded in stereo, using a condenser mike and a dynamic mike.    The electric guitar was processed through NI Guitar Rig 3.

I used several synths, and in general I played them on keyboards, rather than programming like I have done in the past.  The spooky low-end sound that happens at the beginning was created using a freeware synth called DSK Darkness Theory.   The string sounds were all created using Dimension Pro.  

That's about all I can tell you!  Please add your comments to let us know what you think of the end product!