As some of you may know, Chicago has been assaulted by potholes this winter. They’ve hit me pretty hard — not too long ago, Lara and I drove over one and instantly got a flat tire, and then, a week later, I drove over another one that simultaneously knocked my rear-view mirror out of its socket and killed my tape player. Since then, it’s been all radio, a great proportion of which has been top-forty radio. I find that top-forty stations, sonically speaking, are much more avant-garde than adult alternative stations or indie-rock stations. Songs like “Calabria,” “No One” by Alicia Keys, or even “See You Again” by Miley Cyrus, are fairly adventurous productions. With this week’s track, “Twisted,” I’m aiming for that general football field…. a paranoid-yet-club-friendly obsession song that Kelly Clarkson or Britney Spears might sing.
Partially in response to last week’s comments, I wanted to write something with a bridge section that really delivered the goods. For inspiration I looked to “Since U Been Gone,” as that much-beloved track packs a lot of power-chord goodness into a pop format.
The lyrics may sound fairly pedestrian, but believe me when I tell you that I wrote five pages worth of lyrics and trimmed and edited until I was left with what you now hear. I know I’ve said it before, but it’s damn hard to tell a straight story.
Finally, I tried to leave more space in this arrangement, due in part to my feelings after the Baby Teeth show Friday night at the Empty Bottle. I felt like there was not quite enough breathing room in some of the new tunes… the arrangements felt over-eager. So this one is trying to be ever so slightly more in the cut.
