music: discography |
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sons of champlin
About the music
"Total Control"
This song was written by Jay Graydon and me around 11 years ago. We cut it way slower on the demo back then, with just a drum loop, key bass and one or two piano parts. It sounded a lot like a Hall and Oates kinda' thing, which, at the time, wasn't a bad way to go. The basic vocal parts were similar to this version, but that's where the similarities end. I am opening the new album with this one because it may be the most basic 4 piece song on the CD. It was all about grooving with the basic band and it just felt good to let that be without a million overdubs, just a little Mark Eddinger rhodes overdubs on the bridge and tag. Mark is the co-producer of the whole album. This version is almost all about the vocals and the band. Straight ahead to kick off the album with a bang. B.
"Tuggin' On Your Sleeve"
My son, Will Champlin, and Tamara's co-writer, Michael Caruso, were in the process of writing this song in the basement of my house, before the studio was finished, and I kinda' walked in before the chorus was written; I think they were thinking that the bridge in the song would be their chorus. I jumped in on it and pretty much came up with a chorus, and Will went to a studio and cut a Wurlitzer piano and drum loop demo of it. I ran it by Mark when we were looking at tunes and he loved it. When we went in for rehearsal/arrangement time for the CD, this one took a lot of attention. We got into it, arrangement-wise, so it goes a lot of places. On the full version Will and Tamara help me out with leads. Background vocals are Tamara, George Hawkins and me. (George also plays bass on the CD, Bruce Gaitsch plays guitars, and Billy Ward plays drums and percussion.) Will plays Wurlitzer electric piano on this song. The opening bit was originally at the end of the song, with Will and me doing Wurly and B-3, but instead I threw it at the beginning to start the song. This one, in its full version, kind of features the whole fam damnly. If you listen closely to the bridge in the full version, there's a half-hidden homage to The James Brown Band. Anyway, people who've heard this song really love it. B.
"Lookin' For You"
I don't ever seem to do an album without at least one song written with Dennis Matkosky. Dennis had been writing all day when I came in to write this and he was all set to go. He hit the chords of the verse first thing and off we went. The chorus was kind of a mistake, or maybe a bridge, until we listened to it and went, "Hey, maybe that IS the chorus." Usually a chorus goes up and louder, but this one went back a little--strange, but right, for this song. This was more along the line of my original idea for a "swampy" album, so I just sent this to Mark in a really rough form and he jumped on it. He actually suggested I do a choir on it, which we did. We called up the same amount of people as I had headphones. I call it the "Free Spaghetti Dinner Choir"; not a penny spared for my CDs. I think Billy's track is funkier than a 3 day old band-aid. B.
"No Place Left to Fall"
This song started with a guitar part at our LA house, before we moved to Nashville. Tamara and I just never got around to writing words and melodies, but maybe 2 years later Michael Caruso, Tamara's co-writer, heard it and just kicked our butts to get something written. We cut a loose demo of it and it was OK, but it wasn't until George Hawkins Jr. came up with the 1/8th note groove that sounded a little like a U-2 song, without big drums, that it really started to talk. Billy Ward, in rehearsal, started playing the groove with his hands. It was one of those rare moments where everyone just stops at the same time and goes, "Wow!!!! That's it!!!" Tamara was in tears when she heard the rehearsal tape of it. She said, "I thought it was a good song, but this really does something else to you when you hear/feel it." George pretty much brought this tune way up to where it belongs. The whole band did that to the whole CD. We arranged it together and played it together and it just feels right. It's not completely auto-tuned and processed like a lot of CDs lately. It may not be dead-on perfect, but I think the dead-on perfect records are just that-- dead. Anyway, I love this one. B.