The Bottom/Between Two Lives Back to Songs

©2005 Din Within

Running Time: 6:43

Additional Musicians:
Mike Ian (Drums, Additional Engineering)

Sound Clips (MP3 format): [ Clip 1 ] [ Clip 2 ] [ Clip 3 ]

So this is the bottom
I never thought I'd be
One of those people
Well, shame on me
For thinking I was better
Than the man standing next to me
Who bought dinner for his family
With nickels and dimes

So this is ordinary
I've wasted all this time
Waiting... waiting
And now I'm resigned
To thinking I'm no better
Than the man sitting next to me
Circling opportunities
He'll never pursue

I'm caught between two lives
Confusing who I am
My thoughts have let me down
They betray the enlightened man

Mark's Comment:

So here's the thing. Josh wrote a very strong short-format song a while ago, and played a quick recording of it for me. I was instantly attracted to its sonorous mood and stunning simplicity. He'd recorded it with a minimalist Rhodes part and a hollow-sounding vocal, and it really just worked for me. Obviously, this song was "The Bottom." I originally envisioned it as a very short form, simple song - pretty much just as he'd presented it to me (ending with the phrase "nickels and dimes"). I felt that its understated production and abbreviated length would really make it stand out on the album. However, Josh wasn't too keen on the idea, since he wasn't sure if he might have more to say. So it sat for a while.

In the meantime, I've had a song I wrote almost 20 years ago that I've always been closely attached to - the relentless chords and soaring vocal lines have always placed the song among my personal favorites. Originally called "Thru the Haze," it was a good song musically, but my high-school penned lyrics were certainly too naive and simplistic for use today. I've wanted to rewrite it for some time, and have worked with it on and off again for several years with no major progress.

In playing around on the keys with "Haze", I realized that the two songs might fit together. A quick key change in "The Bottom" cemented it for me - they did work quite well together, actually. I mentioned it to Josh at a session, and pounded out the chords for him. He was a bit skeptical, but I persisted. After working out some sections and mucking about with the arrangement, I showed him a more fully realized version, which helped him see the full picture I was seeing in my head (but couldn't quite verbalize). He and I eventually got together and wrote some new lyrics for the chorus ("Thru the Haze" became "Between two Lives") and the second verse, and we were off to the races! With its tandem vocals, dark lyrical overtones and a unique instrumental arrangement, we've really got something different and exciting going in this song. It's quite a departure from most of our other stuff, yet still manages to complement the rest of our catalog quite well. And the drumming in the outro fade-out is absolutely ridiculous.

Josh's Comment:

This song is a bit hard for me to nail down. I think it's the most "eccentric" song we have (for lack of a better term). The lyrics in the first verse are very personal and cathartic for me. They came quite easily, but also hit upon something very deep. I feel as if it was something I had been trying to understand about myself, but I had to get out of my own way in order for it to come through and fall into place. I realize that's a bit heady for an explanation...

The music actually came first. I'm not much of a piano player, so I was messing around with some chordal patterns that didn't come easily to me (on purpose). After playing with it for a while I put on a Rhodes patch on the synth, and lo and behold there was a verse in there.

Mark thought some lyrics and melody he had for another song would work well. It seems to be my modus operandi, but I wasn't convinced at first. (I should probably listen to him more often.) In retrospect, it wasn't the music so much as it was the lyrics that I wasn't totally sure of. We made a few small changes to the words, and it still took me a while to feel the words, but in the end it worked and I'm quite happy with it.

I wanted the song to really pick up and rock out. I was toying on Mark's 12-string bass and came up with a very cool bass line. Then we got stuck... again. Leaning on my prog roots I wanted the song to go on for another 300 minutes. It just wasn't working, however. I think Mark and I pretty much both came up with the idea of just having me play a solo during the heavy part and then just fade the song out. Overall, the song works quite well this way.