JS: Definitely. I wrote the song and had it done 24 hours later. It was a very important moment. The song also came out of hearing ‘Heatwave’ and saying, “That is the coolest ascent of chords I’ve ever heard. What if that ascent went twice as fast? If it went twice as fast would it be twice as exciting?” That was the jumping off point of that song. It was very successful.


SD: What was your songwriting process like back then?


JS: Smoke a joint and write a song. I wish I could whitewash it for you, but that’s how it was. After the first song, my relationship with the listening audience changed. Whether it’s expressed by the record company or whether


it’s expressed by the numbers of the records you sold on the last one, you realise, “Hey, they like this. I can keep going.” I got sucked along in the current. A lot of these songs were coming up because we needed another single, not because I had been staring off into the blue and suddenly got hit by a bolt of lightning.


SD: What do you recall about writing ‘Summer In The City’?


JS: My brother Mark brought me a song with that title, which had an OK verse and an amazing chorus. I said, “God, that is such a great chorus! But let me rewrite the verse and just put a whole bunch of jagged edges in it that will make it real tense. Then it’s going


to burst out of the gate when it gets to the chorus.” The third part of it is Steve Boone’s creation, because he had been playing that bass figure in rehearsal a lot. It goes to show how good it can be when more than one mind get on one idea.


SD: Early on, the band was briefly courted by Phil Spector. Do you think you would’ve been as successful with him?


JS: No. It’s important to understand that in this framework Erik Jacobsen, who became our producer, wasn’t just some guy we met once we got going. We’d already started this conversation about what we wanted to do. We’d been in the studio together. There was no more important record than Presenting


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