Catacomb Dancers

As I walked about in Salzburg in the year 2005, I spied many merry street vendors and musicians. One of the musicians was a man dressed like Mozart who played symphonies by tapping on wineglasses that had varying levels of water in them, each one resembling notes on a musical scale. It had to be the most otherworldly talent I had ever seen. It made me think of ghosts. Was Amadeus's spirit walking the streets? Dancing the streets perhaps? I walked past a giant cathedral to where the ancient catacombs stood and began to dance to the music in my head. I believe that there were spirits dancing with me that day. They were muses who understand that I needed a new song. They begged me to give into Silence. If I listened long enough to the silence, they would give me a song. A few days later, while hiking through the mountains of St. Gilgen, all that I heard were the sound of bells swinging from the necks of cows and rivers washing over the valleys. I came up with a song. This song, Sit in the silence, was the cornerstone of what would be my next album. I decided that 4 years from that time i would release an album, and that song would be on it. Here we are 4 years later. It is time for this song to come and join the living.
The first time I recorded that song, it was with Chris Mayrena, founder of Hyperraje records in December of 2005. It was live, just me on guitar and vox, him on drums. We hit record and we went for it. Honestly, as raw as this song is, it's one of my favorite things I've ever recorded. It's so unproduced, and the song was still in it's early stages, not having yet been flogged to death.
I write a lot of songs, but wanted to reserve the songs for this particular album that spoke to the spirits. The other ones could languish for periods unknown. This batch if for the Catacomb Dancers. Comatose, I wrote and recorded 2 years later. It was to be produced with Michael Vail Blum who has worked with everyone from Suicidal Tendencies to Madonna to Eric Avery. He also produced a song of mine, Maybe the meteor. I also did a version of that song with Jeremy Black on Drums, and produced by Jaime Sol Black. I feel that both versions are so different, and have decided to include both of those on the album. The latter part of the song is about death. The fact that I feel that ,"isn't it strange we gotta say goodbye? Don't you think it's strange that noone wonders why? Isn't it strange?" We should all treat each other better then we do. That's really what I'm talking about. The ghosts get it. Dance along with the Catacomb Dancers! Sleepwalking Angel is another song that Jaime Sol Black produced of mine, and he now plays it in the Dirty Suits! This is a song I wrote in 2001, and has drifted and danced into different versions. Jeremy Black also plays drums on this version.
Disengage is a song of the past. If songs could be ghosts, this would be one. And a very patient one at that. A forgotten song, laid to rest and resurrected by My brother Joey who insisted over and over again that I should record a version of this song that I've written half a life ago. Yes, this song was written in 1993. Way back in the day. It didn't get a proper recording until 16 years later, when Peter Distefano, brilliant guitar player of Porno for Pyros produced it and played some of his magical leads over it as well. Andy Troy of Eric Avery's band Polar Bear laid down some bass tracks. I felt it was appropriate for the spirit of this album.