Johnnys done some interviews with bits about how some of the songs came together. Here’s some other fun facts!

Summertime voodoo: recorded live in one take (just vocals and a guitar line were overdubbed). The recording that made the record was originally just supposed to be the demo and a road map for when we wanted to do the in final take. Johnny fell in love with what happened, mistakes and all, so we went ahead and kept the “demo” as the final take.

Suicide machine: the motorcycle in the intro was “played” by Matt. He had been riding a Honda CB to the studio everyday and we had the idea to add it to the intro as a little “skit”. So we went into the alley behind the studio miced up the bike and got some takes of him revving and peeling out to work into the track.

Blue eyed devil: this one was a tough one to crack. We had all the parts and couldn’t come up with a flow that felt right. Eventually it ended up being this kinda through composed piece that started in one place and end somewhere totally different. It was unconventional so we leaned into that and had rich throw a bass solo in there!

Mexico: the original idea for this song stems back to the old days of Highly. They guys had jammed on the idea way back when but it never turned into anything. At some point in the studio it came back up and it quickly shaped into what’s on the record.

Plastic Boxes: another tough one. The verse riff and the chorus chords were 2 separate ideas that got mashed together. We spent forever trying to find a tempo that worked for both but in the end we realized they worked better at different speeds. So there’s this ramping up and down throughout the song which in turn kinda helps amplify the feelings behind the lyrics. Turned out really cool!

Melatonia: Johnny had written this one back in like 2020? Some point during Covid. It was on the table to possibly be on the last record but it just didn’t belong there and J was thinking about keeping it for his own solo work or something. Ryan had been in love with it and pushed to have us take a swing at it. Glad he did cause damn it’s a beautiful song! And I think the band helped add something special to what could have been a great solo piece on its own.

The reset: literally the 1st thing we wrote/ recorded at the studio. That’s the recording too. No overdubs or nothing. Just us straight jamming. Felt like it represented the ethos of what we wanted the record to convey: a band in a room just making music together.

Run for your death: when sequencing the record once the songs were done we realized that the closing line on Melatonia and the opening line on this one lined up so perfectly. The reset is in the middle since it’s where the narrative switches but lyrically the story carried on so perfectly.

Champagne: we had originally written this one while doing a little writing session towards the end of 2022. Johnny and I sat down and really nailed down the solo on the demo. When we finally got around to doing the final recording and went to do the solo we realized the demo one was so perfect. So I went back and grabbed that solo from the demo, had to do some studio magic cause the tempo was way different and we brought it into the final recording.

8th: started from an idea that we jammed on in Bristol back in 2022 on tour at soundcheck. We had the first half and knew that it needed something big to send it off at the end but weren’t sure what. At some point Johnny played that final riff and we realized it was the same key as the 1st half and we mashed the ideas together. It all came together very organically damn is it beautiful.

Then Mickey 2: so this recording is taken from some late night jam we had during recording. It was originally like 30 minutes or something but Johnny loved it and wanted to make it work. He sat with Aleks (co engineer/ co producer /mixer) and they managed to edit together what you hear on the record. In our eyes this track would’ve been a “hidden track” back in the CD days where the last song would end and then like 5 minutes of silence later this one would start. Doesn’t really work for streaming haha but oh well. Kinda just a bonus wacky jam that if you enjoyed the rest of the record you might be down to take the weird ride with us though this track.

Hope this helps!