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1. Overture to The RPM Challenge

// March 2nd, 2008 // No Comments » // The Sauna Tapes

This instrumental has been in existence for quite some time. It was originally performed at the funeral of my grandmother, in 1995. And it wasn’t new even then. It is one of the few substantial classical pieces that I’ve ever written, and it’s definitely never been recorded before. I guess I should have played a gut-string guitar for this, but fact is I don’t own one good enough. It was laid down using my trusted Larrivee, which at least has the right body form.

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2. The Homecoming

// March 2nd, 2008 // No Comments » // The Sauna Tapes

A rockin’ tune. It turned out quite better than I’d hoped for, and also a little different. I re-wrote the chorus part for the Challenge, lowering it a whole note.

The lyrics are about this guy having a night out, when his long lost girlfriend, the Hollywood Starlet, suddenly turns up at the bar. And it turns out there’s still some embers glowing.

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3. Would That I Could

// March 2nd, 2008 // No Comments » // The Sauna Tapes

I had the verse and the chorus parts going into the album making process. But it needed some lyrics and a bridge. I sweated with the words for a long, long time, and I’m still not entirely happy with how it turned out. I finally deemed it “good enough”, and here it is.

Like the second song, this is also about kind of a homecoming. But this is more like the return of the loser that fled, with regrets and feelings of unworthiness.

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4. Try Again

// March 2nd, 2008 // 1 Comment » // The Sauna Tapes

This song was inspired by the great Swedish songwriter Evert Taube. I hope to have conveyed at least some of the vivaciousness and flare of his truly great spirit of songwriting.

While I can never hope to approach his lyrical genious, this song is about waking up from the dreariness of everyday life to the fact that you only get one shot at it, so go live a life worth living. Like Evert’s.

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5. You and I

// March 2nd, 2008 // 1 Comment » // The Sauna Tapes

Originally a drone and more of a soundscape. A song turned into a chant, and a chant turned into a song. I’m not entirely sure about the lyrics. It seems to suggest the picture of a woman left grieving on the shore of the ocean her great love never returned from. For years and years. The musical ending aims to depict someone slowly disappearing into the deep. It may be her, it may be her loved one, it may be both…

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6. Do What You Wanna Do

// March 2nd, 2008 // No Comments » // The Sauna Tapes

The lyrical concept of this song is to capture a brief, fleeting moment in time: The breathless seconds passing between the moment of his asking for her hand in marriage, and her reply.

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7. Going Home

// March 2nd, 2008 // No Comments » // The Sauna Tapes

This song was written years ago, but has lacked a musical home. It pleases me that it finally found its resting place on this recording. The composition is a collaboration between myself and a good friend of mine who I’ve never met. He goes by the name of John Powers, and is a native of New York. The collab was done while we both had songs up on a site called amp3.com, during the prehistoric internet independent music scene. If you see John, please say hi.

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8. Taste Love Again

// March 2nd, 2008 // No Comments » // The Sauna Tapes

A mellow tune. It seems I got a lot of those on the album, somehow. I just hope it ain’t the age showing. This one’s about heartache, and the curious human trait to be able to get past grief so bad ordinary animals perish from it.

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9. Good Night Daddy

// March 2nd, 2008 // No Comments » // The Sauna Tapes

This one was supposed to have lyrics and vocals. I just couldn’t come up with any lyrics, so I almost decided to leave it out altogether. As an experiment, I just played the melody to the background I’d already recorded. It turned out pretty nice, but to add to the texture of the melody I decided in the end to use an electric lead instead.

I might still write some lyrics for it, at some point in time. But for now, I’m pretty happy with the way it turned out.

Almost forgot, this version actually does have a vocal part. Towards the end of an acoustic take, my youngest daughter stuck her head in the sauna/studio to say good night to her old man. Since it fit the mood of the song, I let it be, and made it kind of a closing point for the song. And for the album.

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