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We kind of set these songs up to be mini-epics... We tried to bring in elements from jazz and '70s soul music. Those infusions, in particular, do a profound job of mixing ecstasy and sorrow. They give you a jolt of ecstasy when you first hear that music and then give you something that cuts right to the heart. -Ethan Miller |
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Magnificent Fiend Song-By-Song With Ethan Miller
Requiem
If you listen closely, "Requiem" is simply the chord progression that comes into "Dancers" afterwards. Originally I thought it would be cool to do a little synth intro or something before that rocker comes in, but Joel took it to another level where someone said it sounded like a rave. So, we sat him down at a grand piano and then he laid down a really low turning Lesley organ, which gives it a mournful vibe. Then we went outside and Mike Jackson and Eli were working on a King Crimson song on acoustic guitars. Mike was playing Joel's nice old Tacoma guitar, and he set the guitar behind me on the wall. I didn't know it was there and I had all these beers in my hands. Everyone got around in a circle and we shotgunned the beers, and we were joking around and I hit the guitar and it fell over and the neck snapped right beneath the head. Joel was kind of in shock. He was kind of dazed and upset, and he started drinking whiskey pretty hard. We hung out for a few, listening to what he'd done on the intro so far, and then he laid the trumpet solo down on top. The original name of the song was 'Requiem For A Fallen Axe.' So, the sorrow in the trumpet playing is real. He was so drunk by the time he did it he didn't remember playing it the next morning.
Dancers At The End Of Time
It's an homage to Michael Moorcock and his characters in his trilogy. I was teasing out some of the things I saw in that series that have heavy relation to our times. He's not laying down a black-and-white thing. He's painting the end of a world with grotesque entitlement and unabashed joy, and finally some realization and guilt, but it all still swirls towards your eventual destination in the universe. That jives with my thing.
Calling Lightning Pt. 2
There are a few lyrics that are the same, a few chords that meet up, but it's really a different jam [than Pt. 1 on Howlin Rain's self-titled debut]. Maybe it takes up the narrative. The other one is definitely from a different narrative moment in the character's life. After I did this, I'm thinking about doing more of this in the future. Artists do this all the time. You see it in works by Gauguin or other painters where they study a certain subject or color in 25 charcoal drawings and eight finished products that have been painted over again and again. There's something about taking an old canvas and painting over it. I don't listen to the old song anymore. I don't play it or feel it. I like the idea of revamping, re-feeling a song. Once an album is finished, mastered and on the shelf it might as well have not existed in my mind. We still play them live, and it breaths life there, but other than going back to check out chord progressions or something I don't like going back.
Lord Have Mercy
There have probably been a million tunes with this title. We borrowed some gospel moments, in our own way, but it's really about toying with our own worst natures mixed in with a longstanding obsession with Faust - the character not the band!
 Howlin Rain
Nomads
Both this song and "Calling Lightning Pt. 2" were recorded on the fly outside the Magnificent Fiend sessions for a single. It was the first time I'd played with Joel, and it might be the first time I played with Joel, Eli and Garett, who are the only musicians on those songs. Ian was in Hawaii, John Moloney [Sunburned Hand of the Man] had left the group, and I just didn't have a group around and wanted to go in and do something. I played them a quick demo of the chord progressions and we went in. Both those songs were either first or second takes. The writing, like "Calling Lightning Pt. 2," was an attempt to do something a little experimental for my usual thought process, to try and write a classic road song AND write a song about writing songs.
El Rey
There's some Steely Dan and Curtis Mayfield homage in this one. This is a mixed tribute to Jim Thompson and our soldiers in Iraq. The great crime fiction writers use such rich language. That crime patois is so poetical and yet so economical, which is ideal for lyric writing – rich, super evocative, drenched in vibe and resonance. Yet, it's the most pared down, sparse, engaging words you can get on a page, and slash-and-burn anything else, leaving you standing there bold as can be.
Goodbye Ruby
'Ruby' is probably the most experimental song on the album. Talk about Steely Dan! There's like 10,000 chords in that song! Often I write riffy turnarounds, and I wanted to see if I could write something with a million chords that's still funky and groovy and has a swing and a roll to it. I wondered if the chords would add a nice skin or texture. It ends up going a lot of places. It got out a bit from underneath my imagination and took on its own life outside my control. By the end there's been a choir of electric guitar solos, Chicago style horns, tempo changes, mood changes. Goddamn, the whole kitchen sink is in there!
Riverboat
There's a little Cormac McCarthy nod to this one, though The Road came out after I wrote it. It's about the bond of love and protection in the face of apocalypse. I tried to write folkier than I usually do but it's kind of Yanni meets U2 meets Guns 'n' Roses [laughs]. It's weird but we didn't think about this combination AT ALL while recording it!
Do yo'self a favor and catch Howlin Rain on tour now...
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