A "Dose" of Discourse From Ed Roland


Ed Roland: vocals, keyboards, guitars 
* Ross Childress: lead and rhythm guitars 
* Dean Roland: rhythm guitars 
* Will Turpin: bass, percussion 
* Shane Evans: drums, percussion


"Tremble For My Beloved"


When we did pre-production in Atlanta, this is one of the first songs we
wrote.  We were just trying to experiment.  We knew all along that it
was going to be the first song on the album, so we were trying to work
out the little intro piece.  Lyrically, it came together at the same
time that I found out I was going to be a dad, So it's basically about
the insecurities of being a father and bringing a child into the world 
especially since it was during that time when there were all those kids
killing each other in school.  I couldn't help but think, "Oh my God,
have I really screwed up here?"  The song touches on all the insecurity
that comes with those thoughts and wondering if you could actually be a
good parent.  But it's been a great experience.  My son was born in
August and it's been so cool.


"Heavy"


When we started the record, the first thing everybody said was how we
wanted songs with big guitars, y'know.  That's the reason this song was
written.  "Heavy."  The whole idea behind it was finding a way to get
the guitars to sound bigger than life.


As for the lyricse, sometimes when I write, the words come out as
quickly as the music.  We call those vowel movements, when I just blurt
out anything to see what happens.  This time, I actually came up with
the words, "all your weight/it falls on me/it brings me down."  So it
kind of worked.  Then I thought, we'll just call the song "Heavy."  It
seemed to fit with the sound of the song and the things I was singing
about.  I got lucky on that one.


"No More, No Less"


Basically it all came off of that loop Shane did — where you hear the
breaking glass.  We were in pre-production and he said to us, "Hey,
check this out."  As the loop was going I wrote the song right there.
Thank God we had the DAT player going.  I said, "Play it back, ‘cause I
don't even remember what I just did."  We sat there and listened to it,
listened to the structure.  It was one of those moments when everything
falls into place.


At the very end of the song we did our best Queen impersonation — Ross
did anyway.  He had fun with it.  Ross actually came up with the piano
part.  He was listening to me play and just went over to the piano we
had set up.  That was the cool thing about this record.  Nobody was
confined to their instruments.  I mean, we recorded songs with Will on
vibes — which is what he majored in at college.  And Shane played a lot
of percussion and did the loops and even played bass on one song.  Will
played a lot of percussion, too.  I'm not a keyboard player but it was
kind of fun to pretend like I was.  We're so fortunate that the band is
able to change things up to that degree.


"Needs"

That one was from the last batch of songs we did.  I was focused on
writing a ballad.  I really wanted it to be as sparse as possible,
'cause it's very personal.  We thought it would be really cool to have a
— excuse me — singer-songwriter song where it's me sitting and playing
acoustic and singing.  Then at the very end, the whole band picks up
where the whole tone of the song lyrically changes.  It was a little
concept we came up with...  and it worked.


The funny part to me is the line where I sing "I don't need nobody."
What's that?  Two double negatives?  It's the worst grammar in the
world!  I was so worried about it, I went to the band to ask what they
thought and they said, "Just sing!"


"Slow"


The reason I like this song is because it's the first one I  wrote with
my brother, Dean.  I had written a lot of songs for this record, and
after a while, I felt drained.  On "Slow," I think I had the chorus and
the first line, but it got to the point where I was stuck and told Dean
to just take it from there and see what he could come up with.  He was
really nervous at first, but it worked out great.  It helped free me up
to concentrate on some other things in the studio.  Plus, I only have 50
words in my vocabulary.  I'm always hoping to bring somebody in who's
got a couple more.  People ask me now, "How can you sing someone else's
words?"  Well, he's my brother.  I understand exactly where he's coming
from because, basically, we live with each other.  I know he's of his
own mind, but our surroundings are the same.


For the next record I think we'll even expand that more to where you'll
see Shane and Will singing and writing.  I mean, all the Beatles got to
sing their songs.  They're the ones that wrote the rulebook on rock ‘n
roll, which is that there are no rules.


"Dandy Life"


Ross wrote that one.  He actually had written that one and another one
called "Tell."  He went back and forth between the two for a while
there.  Eventually he decided to go with "Dandy Life."  I think he was
working through to that comfort level, y'know.  It's hard when you're
recording the song that's going to be your showcase on the album.  That
can be a kind of pressure situation.  In the end, I wish I'd have
written that song.  It's a great pop tune.  So I'm really proud of him
and excited that we did it.


"Run"


I was in the studio when I was writing this song.  I remember Dean
walked by and said, "What is that?  We've got to record that."  I had
just finished it.  So, literally, Dean went and got the guys together
and I played it on an acoustic.  They were all saying "We've got to
record that song."  "Okay.  I'm up for it."


It's one of those that has a bit of a concept to it.  Lyrically it's a
tribute to the artists that inspired me to even want to be a musician —
they're the same ones that inspire me now.  So I took what I loved about
those artists — like Jeff Lynne and his production of the 12-string
guitar.  For the melody, I tried to use the same formula as Elton John's
"Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" — where all of a sudden you bounce up into
the falsetto.  Lyrically, I tried to write about how much — not that
it's a bad time in music, because I'm sure people are very inspired by
what's going on right now — but personally, I wasn't.  Basically, it's
about trying to get back to what has inspired me.  The song is a tribute
to Elton and Bernie and Jeff Lynne, and, of course, the Beatles.  If it
wasn't for them, y'know, I don't know what would have happened with
music.  It's hard to tell.  They are the history of rock.  I just bought
that new Beatles 30th Anniversary White Album.  It's cool.  You get the
little postcards.  The other cool thing is that it actually smells like
an LP.  Do you remember how LP's used to smell when you'd first open
them up?


"Generate"


I wrote the riff on a guitar, but I thought, "Okay, enough guitar riffs
for a while, let's try something different."  I wanted to at least
introduce the riff on a different instrument.  That how I ended up using
the clavinette at the beginning of the song.  Stevie Wonder used one all
the time.


It's one of the songs that Shane worked hard on.  We never got the right
vibe, and then one night he was leaving the studio (Criteria Studios,
Miami, Florida) to go home. He was catching a plane.  But I said I just
wanted to try "Generate" one more time.  I put one mic in the room and
he literally played it one time through and left.  And that was the
take.  From now on, we'll record when we're in a hurry to catch a plane.


"Compliment"


We recorded that song in one night — our last night in the studio.  We
did two versions of it.  One is almost a blues thing.  Ross actually
played the solo with a quarter, like a ZZ Top.  Then we came back and
did it the way you hear it on the record.  We were very busy that night.


Dean did most of the lyrics; I came up with the chorus.   It's funny
how the whole thing came together.  I mean, Dean was running in and out
of the room with new ideas while we were recording.  Also, I was just
having the hardest time singing.  The word "world" was used a lot and
it's one of the hardest words for me to sing.  I have to remember — No
more "world" lyrics!


"Not The One"


I was really trying to get the right mood with the vocals.  I actually
sang that one about three times.  I sang it kind of hard one time and
really forced it.  But, y'know, it's a three-four waltz, so it didn't
require that.  Still, it took me a couple of times to figure that out.
It needed to be more of a whisper.  The lyrics are very personal, to the
point, it's just a very quiet song.  It's hard to sing softly.  To me,
it's a lot easier to scream.  Yeah, it took me a good day to get that
one down.


"Crown"


That's an older song.  Shane and I, when we first started the band, used
to play it.  It had much different feel back then.  We tried recording
it one other time.  I forget which CD — it might have been the second
one.  We just couldn't get the right feel.  So we let it sit...
forever.  Actually, I had forgotten about it, but the guys said, "We
need to try "Crown" again for the next record."


So Anthony Resta came in and did some programming, which helped set the
tone.  It just hit.  And production-wise, we did keyboard bass, which
gave it a kind of Pink Floyd feel.  Lyrically, it's about the loss of
someone you love.  It's about watching a young couple — watching from
the outside and not even being able imagine what it would be like to
lose a partner.


"Dose" Produced by Ed Roland — Mixed by Tom Lord-Alge

All songs written by Ed Roland, except "Dandy Life," written by Ross
Childress; "Slow" and "Compliment," music by Ed Roland,
lyrics by Ed Roland and Dean Roland


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