writing that song. I think its a pretty universal theme, you know. I think we go through this life and we have our good times where everything is jiving and in sync, and then we have our times where we feel like “What the hell am I doing?” and “What’s my next step?” When I was writing it, the first like that came to me was “Your dreams are all fading at the speed of light,” and as soon as I wrote that line it was kind of like the doorway opened up and the rest of the ong kind of wrote itself. The lines in the chorus, “Your clocks are all spinning, your compass is bleeding, your maps are all burn- ing, you couldn’t be more lost,” it’s kind of like the epitome of despair. You know I wrote two songs for this record about nine months ago. I wrote “Live from the Heart” and “Plea- sure and Pain,” and I was really stoked about the stylistics of those songs. they were sides of my influences that I never allowed in my music. Of course, I came up Hendrix and The Doors and B.B. King and Curtis Mayfield. But on the other hand, I was a child of the ‘80’s, so I did grow up on The Cure and R.E.M. and The Smiths and the Clash, and I love that stuff. That music is just as near and dear to my
heart.Then I listened to everything from thrash metal to Nigerian jazz to ambient music - just all kinds. But this was the record where I went in and I said, you know what? I am not gonna squash any influences. I am not gonna write a record hoping it will fit into the blues rock category. There’s gonna be some blues stuff in there. It’s part of me. There’s gonna be some rock stuff in there. It’s part of me. But there are other colors on my pallete and I’m not gonna ignore them this time. I’m just gonna make a record that is a true repre- sentation of my blend. As artists, that’s all we are. We are an amalgam of everything that we put into our well. We are our blend. So I wrote those two tunes , and then I did have a breakup in my life, so I wrote a couple of breakup tunes, and then I hit a wall. I mean,
you can’t write more than two breakup songs, because then it’s just a sappy record. And I called a friend of mine, I’m his producer, and we’ve co-written for his records, and I said man come over here and lets see if you can help me find a doorway into a different kind of song, because I can’t have these all be breakup tunes. So he came over, and I was re- ally shaken because we were only five days away from going into the studio to make this record. So I’m sitting there with four songs, and I knew I wanted to do a cover of The Cure- I did “A Night Like This”-so I needed five songs. I was just hoping that he and I could write one, and it would get me excited and cause a chain reaction for me to write the other four. But in 24 hours, on my front porch, with a shit ton of coffee, we wrote “Say Your Prayers,” “Galaxies,” “Lost,” “Watch What You Say,” and “Find Ourselves.” We re- ally got lucky. The flood gates were open and we were off and running. Tyler Stokes is the cat’s name. He’s 24 - a great player and singer and a great writer, and he saved my record. It’s wild to produce his records, and have him come in at the 11th hour and save my record.
What a great story. The muse was defi- nitely on the porch. And every one of those songs is special. I love “Find Yourself.” It reminds me a bit of the old Muscle Shoals sound. Especially having Ron Holloway blowing sax on it. Oh, I love Ron. He played on Space Age Blues and again on Turquoise, so this is the third time he has played on my records. It’s always a pleasure to hang out with him. We fly him in, and we hang out for two or three days. He’s real quick in the
studio.Real meticulous, and knows what he’s going for. And he’s mail- able and flexible enough to be produced. He always elevates and sophisticates the track. Always.
Another guy I saw on the liner notes is Tom Hambridge. I like that guy a lot.
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