Behind The Veil

Writers

Performers

Bridget Remembers

This song originally had different words and a different tune. The vocals were recorded around the same time as Always working in the same way; singing to a drum track. The song was called Death Shuffle and was written from 2 people's perspective, one alive and one dead. Both trying to sort things out and get back to each other. At first it wasn't clear who was singing what and as we'd thought that Don could sing one part and me the other it needed rewriting. It lost something in the rewrite but we did have the idea to try out some older lyrics (Under One Sun) that I thought only Michael Jackson should ever sing! Though I sang them in a most unMichael way :) and Behind The Veil took shape.

This song had many parts needing precise editing. This happened on every song, an email dialogue between me and Don detailing timings of appearances, disappearances, repetitions and fades of particular instruments. Luckily we both have similar musical ears and tended to agree on most edits and where we didn't we compromised...usually going with whoever felt strongest. I remember Don cutting out my favourite bit of EWI and asking for it back and him replying that the guitar was busy there but he did put it back so we're still friends!

Don Remembers

This is one of the underdog tracks for me, as both Bridget and I tend to cite other pieces as our favorites. There is something about this one that makes me think it'll have good legs for the future. For example, it looks like the interview that Bridget is doing on the Voiceprint web site will have this track included during the interview, maybe as the interview's intro track. So, this one obviously caught someone's ear at Voiceprint.

Speaking of names, this piece is a nice example of how you can increase your satisfaction of a piece by simply finding a good name. Soon after Bridget and I agreed on the name (and stuck with the music and vocals we had developed), we embraced the Arabic quality and made plans for seasoning this one with good eastern violin, background raga vocals, drone and stick guitars, and some bedouin bass.

When I review my mixing work, I can always come up with things that could have been done differently. Recently, I've noticed a trend on listening to different Spirits Burning material, where I feel like I've maybe mixed background vocals by a second vocalist a bit too low in volume. I noticed it in two tracks from SB's Alien Injection CD. On the title track, my "Lemmy-esque" background vocals could have been louder. Also on that album, the New Religion track should have had Jerry Jeter 's "gothic" background part more present. And, that brings me to Behind the Veil. I think Alison could have been a little more present in this one, and probably in Dancers too. All debatable, of course. That 's the thing about music. It 's all about choices. And what you hear are the snapshots of what was chosen at one point in time.

This is the first Spirits Burning CD released with Cyndee on violin, which is kind of ironic. It's actually the third CD she's worked on. First, she did material for a Spirits Burning rock in opposition CD, then work for a Spirits Burning film noir CD. And, finally her Earth Born sessions. In this particular space race, Earth Born was the first CD to complete, and in turn, the first to be released for public consumption. Suffice to say there is more to come.

Don's Timeline

Original Titles: Under The Sun; Death Shuffle