STATE I'M IN
Lyrics: Brendan Power Music: Erich Arndt
Brendan Power- Vocals; Bill Brown- Bagpipes; Erich Arndt- Backing Vocals; Gary Eurice- Fiddle; Jon Heller- Accordion;
Rich Lipski- Piano, Acoustic Guitar
Tonight brings about the same old song
Another bar, another drink but still you are gone
The words that you spoke still ring though my head
So I’ll finish this bottle, head straight home to bed
(Chorus)
There’s been good days and bad days since you been gone
The smell of your hair still lingers on
The smoothness of the glass replaces your skin
And leaves me here every night in the drunken state I’m in
But I’ll stop for another at the pub across the street
And relive my pain to everyone that I meet
And when the barman says “Son, you’ll have no more”
I’ll scoop up my change and fall out the door
(Repeat Chorus)
So I stagger from the pub and make one more stop
I find where you lie and to my knees I drop
The words that you spoke, so simple and true
“Wherever you go, I’ll be there with you”
(Repeat Chorus x2)
And leaves me here every night in the drunken state I’m in
Man, was this one ever a fluke. Brendan had written the lyrics years before but never quite managed to get them put to music until I came along a few years ago. I looked over the words and I swear the first thing that came out of me is what we went with. I want to be ashamed that it's such a "paint by numbers" chord progression but Brendan bent and pulled the melody into something truly special. When we first set out to record it none of us really had any idea what we were going for, but Rich had been playing around with some piano ideas and everyone was blown away by them, so we started with that and built from there. He also played the acoustic guitar part, and Bill played one of his various whistles AND one of his various bagpipes and Jon played the accordion. In fact, by the time it was all said and done every member of the band played a part except for me, so I sneaked in at the very end of the tracking sessions and threw in a couple of subtle "hoo hoo hoo"s in the last chorus just so I could say I was in the song. When Gary first got his solo into this one it made my wife cry and Brendan just nailed the emotions so perfectly. I don't think any of us expected this song to end up being anything like it is, or anywhere near as good as it is... but I think it's the emotional climax of the entire album and I think there’s a chance someone might still remember my name a hundred years from now because of this song. -Erich
I wrote this song almost 12 years ago. Although it is not about a specific person or a specific event, it was a song I wrote when I was going through a very difficult time during my life. This song really was a confluence of emotions, and struggles. I found myself in a very melancholy mood, and sat down and poured it out on paper. I must say I had some help from my good friend Jameson. Originally I had worked with Barry Mills while writing this, but we never did anything with it. Years later, Jon cleaned out one of his instrument cases and came across the lyrics. Thankfully, Erich put some guitar chords to it, and the rest of the band put this together. Although it is very different from our typical style, I am incredibly proud of the band for bringing those lyrics and feelings to life. Music truly can conquer anything. -Brendan
Kilmaine Saints does not write many slow songs, and even when compared to those, this song still feels like an outlier. More than any other song on the album, State I'm in feels like a piece of work that is greater than the sum of its parts. Six different instruments (including Rich's piano part, which acts as the structural backbone) all manage to interact and blend in a way that support and enhance, rather than clash with or dominate one another. Brendan's vocals are the star of the show so, being a lead instrument, it was important that my fiddle part not distract from his performance while still adding texture to the song as a whole. The nature of this song also calls for much more expressive playing than one might expect from traditional Celtic fiddle. That being said, I still tried to incorporate traditional ornamentation in the fiddle solo without compromising the somber tone that emanates from this song. It might be my favorite solo on the album. -Gary
This song is probably the biggest departure for us, but I think it turned out incredibly. When we first ran through this in the practice room, we almost had a 80's power ballad thing going on. I was initially on bass for the first run through. At that point I really thought it was just album filler. I had just gotten a keyboard and was teaching myself how to play. I started playing along to Erich's demo since I learned all the chords on piano. I finally got the courage to record what I was doing and sent it along to a few members to see if it was worth pursuing for the recording. Everyone gave their full support and I recorded a piano track and passed it along. I also tracked some very minimal acoustic guitar. At that point everyone kind of added their pieces to it. Nothing was worked out together, but when it all mixed down, it blew us away. -Rich
Having a little fun mixing vocals
Some of Erich's original demo