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process liner notes

I named the CD Process because it was the best word to describe the concept of taking raw material and assembling it into a work of art. It also carries computer related connotations, which I like.

Yes, it's true that one of the songs on Process contains backwards masking. A free t-shirt and poster goes to the first person who can tell me which song it's on and what the backward masking message says. cale@cerebralnoize.com

Stake Through The Head
This was one of the first songs I wrote. On some days it's my favorite song on Process. I remember coming up for the tongue in cheek lyrics at the end of the song while I was sitting at work one day and thinking it was a stroke of genius. An epiphany. Whether they are brilliant or not is certainly debatable, but in my mind they are the best combination of words I've ever written.

Computer Art Geek
As far as I'm concerned, the Macintosh computer is the greatest invention on earth. I spend many many many hours making stuff with my Mac. Thank you Apple!

Processed Sound
I originally named this song Cerebral Noize because both titles convey the concept I was trying to get across. I changed the title, be cause I think a song needs to be pretty extraordinary to have the same title as a band name. I talked my wife into singing on this one. I just love her voice. It works well as a contrast to my harsh vocals. This song originally used about 40 seconds of sampled audio from an episode of Buck Rogers named "Space Rockers." I was a big fan of the show growing up and wanted to pay tribute. Long story short, I was going to have to pay a lot more than tribute to use the samples on the song. I couldn't justify spending almost $5000 for royalies, so I re-tooled the song without the samples. That little fiasco delayed the release of the CD another two months. This was the first song that I added layered multi-part vocal harmonies to. I've always loved the sound of several harmonious parts going on at the same time. Like barbershop quartets and classical music. Hard music does not do this enough. Thanks to bands like Rhapsody, the classical music elements are finding there way into metal now.

Nature Of Evil
My goal with this song musically, was to give it a black metal feel. Originally this song was inspired by an Unwritten Law song and was only going to be about 30 seconds long. Well, it grew. Lyrically, it conveys an important philosophical concept. Evil is not a thing. It is the lack of something – like the hole in the doughnut. The yell at the end was Steve Egan expressing his joy over finally nailing what is a particularly difficult bass part to play at the end of the song.

Wept
This was the second song I ever wrote. Written about the circumstances around which Jesus was moved with emotion. Some pretty fast kick drum action on this one.

Non Contradiction
A song about Logic 101, really. It was the most difficult to mix. At the end there are so many things going on, that it became quite a juggling act. I'm particularly fond of the acoustic interlude with the jazz flavored lead guitar over top. Grey Procter gets full credit for coming up with that amazing piece of work. Very tasty.

About Love
Okay, I'll admit it here. I'm a huge Strapping Young Lad fan. Nowhere is their influence more evident than it is at the transitional part between the intro and when the song starts kicking butt. The clean chorus like vocal part in the middle of the song was my first attempt at bringing clean vocals into a song on Process. I think my yelled vocal style is stronger than my clean vocals. This is why the clean vocals are used sparingly throughout Process. Know anybody who can raddle off the ten commandments? I couldn't. That's why I originally wrote the song.

ABC
It was brought to my attention while recording this that it's also the same tune to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

Don't Give Up
In the late eighties and early nineties I went through a very dark time in my. The song Hang Tough by Tesla was really what gave me the energy to press on from day to day during that time in my life. In 2002 I saw Tesla live for the first time. As soon as they started playing the opening chords to that song, I started crying uncontrollably. Music can be very powerful. With Don't Give Up, I wanted to pass the torch. May it somehow help someone somewhere to press on when live sucks. Musically, this is the longest song I've written, and has several different guitar riffs in it. Steve did a superb job with the clarinet lead during the first part of the song. It really brings the tone down to a somber level. Brilliant.

Doc
Dr. Ric Walston (who I affectionately call Doc) is a very special man to me. He took me under his wing and befriended me when I was struggling to answer those important questions in life. More than befriending me, he was the first person I had ever met who had scholarly, intelligent answers to my questions. In contrast to Don't give up, which is very metal, the riffing in Doc is very punk. It also has some industrial flavoring in there. The samples are of Doc teaching.

Metal I
Originally I wrote this song with the idea that the whole song would just be variations of one riff. The lyrics were written in the mid nineties when the music that was coming out just sucked. What a terrible time for metalheads.

Rehoboam
I just like saying his name. Ancient kings were funny with all their wives and concubines. Great kazoo parts by Steve Egan. The kazoo fit the tone of the song perfectly. The lyrics are very tongue in cheek. The song is busy. A lot going on in it, yet kind of layed back. I wanted it that way to reflect how his life must have been. During the verses alone, there are four different female harmony parts going on while I am singing (yelling). Anne Mathews is the star of the song. She sang the female parts. Shimmy V, an ex-bandmate originally came up with the melody for the verse vocals. It sounded very AC/DC. So this is the token slow song on Process. As I've referred to it in the past, a "throw away." It's been surprisingly well liked by people.

Sibling Gibberish
When we were kids, my brother, Micah, would make up nonsense songs. Sibling Gibberish is one of them. I wrote music to it and asked Micah if he would sing (yell) it with me for the CD. He agreed.

– Cale Burr