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Jem7VWH - “EVO”

Fender Strat

Jerry Jones Choral Sitar

Carvin Electric Acoustic

Track 06

“Freak Show Excess”

Additional Percusion: Jeremy Colson and Gregg Bissonette

How The Song Came About:

I enjoy listening to cultural music, especially Bulgarian music. The musical sensibilities of these musicians is very different than those of Western musicians. It’s very natural for Bulgarian musicians to play in various odd time signatures, use synthetic scales and unorthodox (to most of the rest of the worlds standards) harmony. The way they articulate their melodies is lyrical.

You would be hard pressed to hear an American musician phrase like a Bulgarian one. I wanted to emulate some of those Bulgarian phrases on the guitar.

I remember reading a review of one of my shows from a journalist that stayed for the first two songs. The headline was called “Freak Show Excess.” Although the journalist was shredding me I liked the phrase. So I decided to use that title for a song and build a track around it. I wanted to do something that just did not let up but was very melodic and compositional.

What Was I Thinking:

The album liner notes:

“ Yet the innocents deserved a little visually playful, animated Extreme-e-ties. Ladies and Gents, introducing the Whirling Dervish.”

Recording It:

You need to be an Olympic musician to play this one and the guys took the gold on this one. First I build a click track and put some scrap guitars on it. Jeremy was up next. Now this is a difficult track but he would not give up and wanted to get it right, and right he got it.

For me Billy’s bass playing on this track is extraordinary. It’s rare to hear a bass sounding so effortlessly performed on such death defying sonic excess.

Instruments Used:

Guitar/Amp: Main melody guitar: Evo through a Legacy; Main clean rhythm guitar: Strat through Fender amp; Choral Sitar, Carvin Acoustic Electric.