Right Brain/Left Brain: FIREWORKS' "GEOGRAPHY, VONNEGUT AND ME"







WITH CHRIS MOJAN (GUITARS)

DETROIT


""We’re all between the ages of 21 and 24, so playing in a band and touring and stuff, we can’t ignore how our friends and everything we’re used to keeps growing and changing, whether we’re home or not. It’s kind of funny when we’re home, running into kids we went to high school with, who are graduating college now. You spend so much time away that when you come back, everything’s different. When we heard the music and the riff, it kind of gave that nostalgic, times-are-a-changin’ type feel, so we kind of centered the lyrics around that idea. It’s a topic that seems so relevant to a lot of people. When you see or hear something about it, it just strikes that chord with you.


THE MIDNIGHT SOCIETY

I was driving the van, and everyone was sleeping, because we were doing an overnight drive. We had the riff down, and a melody–Dave [Mackinder, vocals] writes all the melodies–and that’s when I came up with the “be the nine, I’ll be the three” line in the chorus. At that point the people we were friends with were all over the country, so the line is in keeping with the theme of time, showing where the nine is and the three is on the clock on a map of the country, being on opposite sides. I remember coming up with it in my head and texting myself on my phone, which we all tend to do a lot. When I come up with stuff, I’ll either text myself or make a note in my phone, and then build off that. The other lines actually came while we were home.


DON’T BLAME THE OCEAN FLOOR

The bridge line, “Father Time…” is a Kurt Vonnegut line; that’s why Vonnegut is in the title of the song. It’s a reference to the book Slapstick. Another line in the chorus, “Leave a piece of yourself, and take something back with you,” was actually inspired by something Anthony Bourdain [host of the travel/food show, No Reservations] said. It was when he went to Malaysia [on the show]; he gave this spiel at the end about traveling and the experiences you get. Our guitar player Brett [Jones] was watching it, and was really into what he was saying, because Anthony Bourdain rules, so he wrote it down… I’m pretty proud to say that our main inspirations for this song, outside of ourselves, are Kurt Vonnegut and Anthony Bourdain.




WITH DAVE MACKINDER (VOCALS)

HOLIDAY


When we’re home and have spare time, I usually find a guitar and mess around, and hum a lot of vocal melodies and stuff. We kind of had the music for the song for a while; we even had some early Garage Band versions of it. I like how the music worked out, because there’s lots of movement in it; it’s an upbeat song during the verses, but has a slower chorus, and the bridge gets kind of minor. I think it’s one of my favorites musically. I’m stoked that it’s the first song on the record. Starting off with a cool drum fill–just a part that hits really hard in the beginning–I think is a great way to start off a record, and how it comes in with just vocals and guitar. I think it just works really well, and we all decided it felt good.


MICHIGAN BOYS NEED TO GET A CLUE

It was definitely cool to have Chad [Gilbert, producer] for an outside-the-box ear–someone else’s approach to it. He has great pop sensibility, and when it comes to symmetry, he’s the man. It was cool, because Chad shared the same vision as we did for the song. In the second verse he offered a one-string lead thing that we really didn’t have in mind, but was kind of cool. And with the symmetry, he definitely brought the “verse one, verse two” kind of feel. Originally, I don’t want to say the song was all over the place, but it had a different approach. But with the two verses established, you can still do creative things, like with different guitar parts. Otherwise the music pretty much stayed the same.


COME AROUND

The outro was also an idea that Chad had in mind; this instrumental, really pretty, slower part that brings back that lead in the chorus. I love how that came out. I think it’s a really cool way to end the song. The song takes you to a few different places, and that’s kind of a cool, climactic part to just chill out the whole thing. It’s kind of a Jimmy Eat World, Clarity-style part. It’s always fun to play that part live, and it’s something you don’t really see coming.

(myspace.com/fireworks)







LINER NOTES:

ALBUM: All I Have To Offer Is My Own Confusion WRITTEN: August 2008 in Detroit, MI RECORDED: October 2008 at Buzzbomb Sound Labs, Orange, CA PRODUCED BY: Chad Gilbert ENGINEERED, MIXED AND MASTERED BY: Paul Miner





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