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about

It was late and we were tired. I don't remember exactly but I think we were on day 5 or 6 in the studio at about 1am. The wall was close but we hadn't quite hit it yet. One of the other guys suggested that we change gears and move on from whatever was frustrating us at the moment - maybe it was Dan who made that call from the control room.

The Isokon is a remarkable studio in a very unremarkable house. Tucked on the side of a mountain outside Woodstock, NY, it is a place where bedrooms double as isolation chambers and the live room has a kitchen, or should I say, THE kitchen. On the second floor, through sliding doors in that live room, there is a deck. We spent a lot of time out there talking about parts, lyrics, and guitar sounds. We took breaks to soak up the warm June sun. We harassed raccoons and looked out into the woods over very strong cups of coffee.

So, as I was saying, it was late and we were tired and someone suggested we move on to another song or maybe just call it a night. I remembered the song "Had to Bleed" and suggested we make a stab at it. We'd been talking about including the tune on the record as a sort of "acoustic interlude". It was to stand apart from everything else on the album in that it would just be a live take of me with my guitar... unpolished... imperfect... quiet.

We talked about the song in the control room (another bedroom) for a few minutes and I played through it once for Dan - he'd never heard it. Around this time, someone had another brainstorm (apologies for the lack of detail when it comes to idea attribution) - we should record the song outdoors.

With that Dan hurried off to the deck and began setting up microphones outside. In fact, I seem to remember everyone buzzing around with some excited energy. I think there was an anticipation that we were about to do something that was pretty cool.

Once the mics were positioned I took my seat on the deck beneath a nearly full moon on perfect early summer night. I played the song. I tuned. I played the song again. I'm not exactly sure what the other guys were doing or how they were doing it but each time I ran the song they were busy in the control room making an assortment of blips, beeps and other strange sounds. A motorcycle drove past. A plane flew overhead. My voice started wearing out. I played the song again. Crickets cricketed. Breezes blew.

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A few months later I wrote the song "Oh, my home, my Ohio" and we recorded it in a similar way, though not outside. It was an easy decision that it was a better fit for the album and so "Had to Bleed" has since been relegated to my hard drive, barely listened to even by me. (Although we did cheat a little and added the crickets "Had to Bleed" to the album version of "Ohio").

It's omission from "Autogeography" shouldn't suggest that we don't like the song - Or since I can't speak for the either guys at the moment, that I don't like the song. In fact, it's one that means a lot to me. "Had to Bleed" is about a bonfire on a frozen river on New Years Eve in Alaska. Dozens of truckloads of people crowded around a massive flame that night, parked and standing upon ice several feet thick. (This is something that happens somewhat regularly there). I talked to a pretty girl I liked. She gave me one of her dad's beers from a backpack. My feet got wet in the melting snow and ice as we watched fireworks lit off way too close to the crowd. It was good. Later that night, I slipped on some ice, busted my chin and thus, was unable to continue talking with the aforementioned pretty girl, who now happens to be my wife.

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There's a theme that runs through some of the songs on "Autogeography" about the idea of feeling connected to land or to a place and, I guess, how important I think that is to being human. In my experience you don't necessarily need to be in Alaska to feel that connection, or even outside of the suburbs for that matter, but I definitely felt that way about that place that night... enough to ramble on for 9 paragraphs about a 3 minute song.

If you've read this far I'll say what I probably should've started (and stopped) with: we hope you enjoy the song!

PB

credits

from Odds, Ends, Whispers, Shouts, released May 1, 2012

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Great Elk New York

The New Yorker says - “The Brooklyn rockers Great Elk display the control and restraint of a band with deep chemistry, as they sway gracefully between gentle ballads and mid-tempo indie-rock tunes.”

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