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Darren: This song was always a wild card. The original idea was very simple: to use the voice as a rhythm instrument - cramming in as many syllables as possible into one phrase. Prior to recording the album we had about 40 songs to choose from. We narrowed down the list to record and came up with 15 tracks. "I Want You" was on that list but because it existed in a simple rough demo, it was not an obvious choice. The recording process really bought the song alive. The simple vocal in the chorus became a bed of 12 voices. Six of Darren and six of session singers that we sank very low in the mix to give the chorus the thick layer of vocals that you hear. When we finished recording, this song just jumped out as our debut single. Lyrically one of the more frantic and nonsensical things we have ever written, the song is based on a recurring dream. |
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Darren: A love song in its purest essence. This track was actually written in the last few weeks of recording and was originally intended to be a subtle, low-key ending to the album. Charles Fisher's producing and Chris Lord-Alge's mix really made the song a much stronger statement. Definitely a pleasing surprise for us. One of the few songs that ended up exactly how we imagined it would. |
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Darren:
This was one of the first songs Daniel and I wrote together. It was a
beautiful, space-like instrumental that Daniel had been working on for
quite a while. He showed it to me and I took it away to work on the
melody and lyrics. The song came together very quickly. We recorded the
song and included it on our first demo tape. Thank God we did because it
is probably the reason why we got the record deal. Most people seem to
zero in on this song. It is inspired by the life of a mutual friend.
Recording the track for the album was a real challenge as we had become
so attached to the original version that it was hard to be objective.
The album version features members of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in
the outro sections. |
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Darren:
A bittersweet takes on the masks and illusions within relationships -
the games we play and the emotions we hide. Originally the song was
influenced by Seal, but the sound soon changed during the recording
process. Now it is a hybrid of influences. If you listen closely you
will hear string arrangements like old Diana Ross & The Supremes
records - layered amidst the throbbing bass and anchored by the almost
dance beat. |
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Darren: During
the writing process this song was originally an instrumental track
possibly suited to guitar. We tinkered with it and added a
Motown-influenced melody and the track seems to have taken on a Smokey
Robinson feel, worlds away from where it began, but firmly rooted in the
original structure. A sexy groove cemented by a fantastic mix by Mike
Pela. |
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Darren:
The scene is just before midnight ... a full moon at a masquerade ball
... avant-garde strings, timpani and even castanets create the gothic
feel of the song, inspired by Anne Rice's vampire chronicles. The feel
is grandiose and theatrical. We feel this song has a definite sound that
we like to think of as our own. We see this feel creeping up a lot in
our new work. |
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Darren:
A track, which took on another identity during the recording process.
The thick doubled fuzz base throughout combined with Rex Goh's
funk/blues guitars give this song an almost Prince-like vibe. Lyrically
a trance-like ranting describing a state of mind we would all like to
get to at some point ... the disco inside your head! |
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Darren:
Once again dealing with conflict, this track is schizophrenic. The slick
moody bass line and held-back vocal in the verses are in direct
opposition to the intense anger and release of the chorus. Turbulent
mood swings and angry guitar hooks dominate throughout. When Rex Goh
played the solo we were jumping out of our skins. Even though it goes
all over the place we felt that the solo was perfect. It was a single
take and was so angry we just had to keep it. |
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Darren:
One of the two songs about conflict in relationships. This track is a
very personal snapshot of a real life argument and a play on linguistics
and twisted meanings. The rhythm section of Terepie Richmond and Alex
Hewitson take the track beyond its original Manchester feel and make it
alive, grunting and believable. |
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Darren: This
track appeared as a bonus track on the "To The Moon &
Back" single. When we released "Moon" we felt that the
song had more potential than we had at first thought. Then when we went
to America, the record company fell in love with the track. It really
was written about Santa Monica, about feeling so out of place in a new
city but seeking comfort behind the mask of a telephone. We were just
getting into the Internet and we found it interesting how in cyberspace
you are only as interesting as your mind. You can be anything you want
to be. So sitting in a cafe in Santa Monica on day, this strange thought
came into being |
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Darren: The
most obscure track on the record. A quirky fantasy inspired by Daniel's
obsession with Meg Ryan. Features a high camp rap overflowing with
designer references and Absolutely Fabulous overtones. Definitely the
shock track on the album. We will have a lot of fun doing this one live. |
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Darren: This
is also one of the first tracks we ever wrote. This song is about delay.
Every instrument is cycling through a delay in its own time, creating a
swirling continues swell that culminates in the instruments finally
locking together. Lyrically based around the notion of desire so strong
and yet so completely unobtainable. |
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Darren: This is a song about the moment where you're ready to give up the fight in a relationship. We don't understand why, but something's not working, even though we wish it could. We really love each other, but why do we keep doing this to each other. We're destroying one another; so maybe being together isn't the best thing for us. It's as if you no longer have any defenses and you agree that things just can't be fixed. It's like a Rubik's cube, where you finally just give up, and that's OK. Daniel: This was my least favorite song for a long time, sort of a four-chord musical thing that didn't turn me on that much. But once it was all put together with Darren's vocal, I went, "Wow." |
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Darren: This love song is very simple. Nothing else on the record is as pure as this song, and I think it was really essential to include. When I wrote it, I wasn't feeling that way at the time, as opposed to "Truly Madly Deeply," which I was absolutely living and breathing. I was there. I didn't know if I could write this one without having that same feeling, but I did and it actually puts a lump in my throat. Daniel: This song is beautiful with Darren's falsetto and the rise of acoustic guitars. It has a lot of innocence. It was important that we find that place on this album again. |
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Darren: There are some pretty heavy places that this record goes, and I wanted this song to be something that says, look, everything is going to be OK; it always is in the end. It's like a lullaby to myself and for the people that listen to this record to see us through the dark moments. Daniel: "Crash And Burn" is my favorite song on the album, and it's the last one we recorded. I love the angst feel of the guitars, quietly placed behind the rest of the sound. It's just a good feel-sorry-for-yourself kind of song. Special note: C&B is my favorite SG song ! |
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Darren: I love this song about obsessive love. It's very real and is exactly what it appears to be. There's a nightclub, there's a Madonna song playing on the dance floor, there's a kiss, and it's all over. It's intentionally retro, with claps drums, a big '80s guitar solo and throbbing keyboards. Daniel: We were thinking very '80s pop when we did the whole synth line and guitar thing you hear in this song. We wanted to make a statement with that. For a while, the song was sounding really ridiculous-totally cheesy-but after we added drums and sped it up a bit, it tended to rock more than crackle. It's a really fun song. |
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Darren: This song was written for the Garry Marshall film, "The Other Sister". It's a surprisingly "up" song for an album that I at first thought was going to be very moody and very electronic. I find it infectious. It was written during the bleakest time of winter in New York, and I wrote it, in part, as an antidote to my surroundings as well as my reaction to the film. Daniel: I love the production of this song. That big drum pop feel with the percussion is just amazing and huge. I sat down and created this drum loop, which was really jungly, and then we added the bass line and Darren started singing over it. I'd have liked it if we could have made the drums even bigger! |
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Darren: This is about a haunting love that you probably shouldn't have left, but you did and it would be so much easier if you didn't still care about them. You're walking around the city with that feeling you have when you're free of something, yet you also miss it. You're reminiscing, where the buildings speak the person's name and how memories of love seep into the pavement and are everywhere you go. Daniel: This was one of the hardest songs to record on the album. We had to be careful that we didn't suffocate the guitars with too much keyboards and vice versa. It's a really honest song with great lyrics. Emotionally, this is probably my favorite song. |
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Darren: This is a very raw song, about an uncomfortable topic: abuse in a relationship, from the perspective of looking back after the whole thing is finished. We wrote this very quickly in the studio. Walter Afanasieff is such an amazing musician that we asked him to play the piano part. It was about 3 o'clock in the morning, and I was in another room to him recording my vocals for the demo. We flew to New York to record all of the vocals for the album, but we ended up using the original demo vocal on this song because it was the best performance. It's not perfect…. but we liked it that way. It has so much emotion, because that was the first time I'd sung it all the way through from top to bottom. Daniel: It's a beautiful, pure, honest and sad song. There's really nothing else that needs to be said. |
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Darren: This is musically extravagant and is meant to take you on a bit of a journey. It kind of immortalizes two people that died-a really close friend's father and an experience that Daniel had. Everybody's life deserves to be remembered in some way and I thought this was an amazing way to remember the beauty of someone's life, in a song. Steve Smith from Journey played drums on this, and he gave an amazing performance. Daniel: This song is about two people very close to us that died. One was the father of a very dear friend and the other was my next-door neighbor when I was 12. He shot himself in our backyard. Afterward, this bird used to appear in a tree outside our house and just sit there, and I made up this story about how the bird was hovering over our place to ask for forgiveness. After the first album did well, I bought a house five minutes from where my Mum and Dad lived, and I looked out the window and there was this same kind of bird again, which I've never seen anyplace else. That's why the song talks about spreading your wings and taking flight |
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Darren: This is all about disillusionment with love, romance, and the chase, just the whole game. It's wallowing in self-pity, but very tongue in cheek, not the way I feel everyday, but just a way to deal with disillusionment. Daniel: This is a very angry, intense song about what's going on in your head when you're not completely sane. We used an angry sort of driving music with a morbid trip-hop sound, and expressed the anger instrumentally through this guitar riff you hear. |
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Darren: It's a very literal conversation about going home and realizing that my whole life has changed and a relationship is over that consumed six or seven years of my life. Now, as I return, my things are packed up in boxes. My partner has put all of my clothes away, saying she had to get away from it. When I opened the suitcase, my life just came out at me through the smell of my old after-shave, and I felt the impact of no longer being in someone's life. |