Winhara

Spring 2007 – we were trying to bang out five more songs before we went into the studio for creative sessions. That winter Hugh’s parents were kind enough to let us take over an amazing apartment above their garage, which they rented out during the summers. I worked early in the morning and Kent worked late at night so we would meet there during the day to write, arrange, (and argue a lot) before Steve and Hugh got there for rehearsal.

One day was going particularly badly and nothing was getting done – just a bunch of false starts and dead ends. It turned into me dejectedly napping on the couch while Kent continued to tinker on an acoustic guitar. An hour later I heard a strange, bouncy, lick through the half sleep. I decided I loved it and ran bleary eyed to the piano. From there, most of the song just fell together. I do remember writing the bridge which turned out to be one of my top 3 favorite moments on the album. It was Hugh’s idea to rotate the melody through the three instruments. He plays a bass note on the first beat, then Kent hits his guitar on the second and I finish the line with my keyboard played through a POG, one of the coolest pedals in the world.

Also, some of you (drummers especially) may have noticed the strange mixed time signature that happens. The whole song is in 4/4 except where that original lick appears. It starts on the third beat of the bar and the chords are evenly spaced, but there are three of them and the last one doesn’t land on the first beat of the next bar (as it would in 4/4). In fact it lands a fraction after where the last sixteenth note would be. If any of you music theory buffs can tell us what we have done here an explanatory comment would be much appreciated.

[Listen to This Year]

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