This is the last song we recorded, and the last song on the album. It’s the longest song I’ve ever attempted to write, at exactly eleven minutes.
It’s also the hardest song I’ve ever had to mix down. I literally spent an entire forty hour week mixing, re-recording, and arranging this one song. (That doesn’t include the original recording process.)
Like so many other Buzzsaw songs, I thought for sure this song was doomed to failure. Part of the problem was none of the parts had strong tempo (due to a failure on my part to use a click track while recording). I had to re-record nearly everything.
The premise behind this song was layers. I wanted a song that slowly progressed and built up layer after layer. If you listen to this song, you can hear an initial synth line all the way through the song, a bass part, rhythm guitar parts, slide guitar parts, layers of e-bow, piano lines, organ lines, acoustic guitar, and more synth parts.
The song seems a fitting end to the album. Clusterfuck’s story is done; this song, other than some ba da ba’s, is entirely instrumental. Perhaps Clusterfuck has undergone a transformation and that he is on a new mission, though we’re unclear what Clusterfuck is up to. Perhaps he’ll emerge on a future album.
I also see this song as a reaction against traditional pop song structure. At eleven minutes, the song strains the listener’s attention span. In a culture where the attention span is divided up into neat increments, and pop songs into three-minute segments, the song seems to offer some resolution to or push against consumer culture.
Chas says:
Whenever I listen to this album and I get to this song, I really realize that we leave things off much more somber than we began. But that’s pretty cool, and fitting for an accidental concept album.
There’s a resignation and a journey to this tune befitting of a failed Noah like Clusterfuck. And because it’s instrumental, the last lyrics we’re left with on the album are ones of resignation, loneliness, and ultimately independence. Again, considering the predominant feel of the album, I’m surprised that we came to rest on these themes, and that somehow they didn’t feel strained. I suppose the best comedy has a way of sneaking in and touching us right when we let our guard down, and because of that, this song has always just felt right as a proper send-off for our hero.
I really dug recording the slide guitar parts, which if I remember correctly are octaves double-tracked. So it take over the soundscape so well because it’s four guitar all at once. I was trying to unlock my inner Trent Reznor, circa The Fragile, probably most specifically “The Day the Whole World Went Away,” which, now that I think about it, is pretty fitting.
Boston band featuring members of Have Heart and Basement take their earnest, motivational post-hardcore to thrilling new heights. Bandcamp New & Notable Aug 23, 2023