This one came from Tommy the drummer who would sadly depart the band shortly after this album’s release. We played it for a year or two before recording it, and it’s always a great primer for the live show. And when we do it live I get to yell out a four-count which makes me feel like I’m the Ramones or something. -Erich

 

Fanfare was an attempt to introduce some new rhythmic flavors to the band namely swing double bass drums and a couple syncopated triplet fills I had rolling around in my head. These "flavors" were inspired by a  Jethro Tull tune called "The Pine Martin's Jig" but it doesn't sound anything like it really. Unfortunately, I have no clue how to play bagpipes so I tried to get the idea of the main riff across with an organ patch I found in Pro Tools. This in turn had the "message" sounding a little more like E.L.P. rather than Tull. None of that mattered anyway because Rich, the first person to respond to the idea, completely changed the vibe by playing the riff on mandolin with a really cool delay that reminded me of something "The Edge" from U2 would play. It was delicate and spacey, and it set a completely different tone allowing for much more dynamics. It was at this point the band ran with it, Gary replacing the 2nd organ riff with dazzling violin parts and the rest of the band just lighting the thing on fire. It was pretty amazing watching the whole thing develop from one silly little riff.   -Tommy

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Having a strong background in Celtic trad, I love a good instrumental tune. So when Tommy put Fanfare on the table, I was immediately intrigued by what it could turn into. What he had come up with was essentially a hook and a rhythm section so we knew it needed a melody to stand on its own. To answer that, I wrote what is essentially a single part Irish jig to play over the verse. After filling in the gaps with a few fiddle and pipe licks, the final song took shape. -Gary

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When Tommy first played his demo, I thought, "how do we possibly do this without a keyboard"? While playing around in the practice room, I found the basic melody on the mandolin, and jokingly threw some delay on it, and Tommy lit up with a "YES"! I had a hard time taking a delayed mandolin seriously, but it served the song. When Gary added the fiddle melody everything just came to life.  -Rich