Sing me a song, Mr. Piano Man...

For weeks, if not the entirety of the hypefactor sessions thus far, F.J. repeatedly insisted that he recorded a moody piano part for a song dubbed "Exist," one of four or so that are quite well-developed at this point. The issue came up every time we listened to monitor mixes in the studio, and F. never hesitated to make a snide comment about my having deleted this brilliant part from the song, thereby ruining the entire album.

And for as many weeks, I insisted this was a load of bollocks. "Exist" emerged from a demo of a song I attempted with another band about seven years ago that I modified drastically in August 2000. I have a lot of pride invested in the track, and I knew there was no way I would have lost a part for this song were it as amazing as F.J. recalled.

Well, I was wrong. But only about 40 percent wrong.

While sorting through files on the computer before my trip to Chicago last week, I came across a Cubase file called "Stay" that I thought was nothing more than a drum loop I programmed last summer. Again, I was only partially wrong. It was indeed a galloping drum loop I wrote the summer before, inspired by the vintage techno of the NewOrder-Chemical Brothers collaboration "Here To Stay." But I had forgotten about the fact that, during our first or second session of the summer, F.J. and I slowed it down to about 90 b.p.m. He added bass... and piano.

Shit.

To say F.J. was pleased would be a slight understatement. He is right - the riff was pretty good, and we built on it last night by adding some synth parts and guitars. I was told that Pink Floyd was my inspiration, and we also worked out a chorus riff that hugged the minor key piano and bass parts nicely.

I know already that the track will be a struggle to complete. My natural instinct as a guitarist and producer is to take a Phil Spector "Wall Of Sound" approach to recording, and I will have to resist the impulse to layer guitar upon guitar and effect upon effect with this track.

I am sure that F.J. would rather he told this story first, but I beat him to the punch. But the way I see it, he has me to thank for the fact that we found the song in the first place. Of course, I am also the one who "lost" the track all those weeks ago. But normally he would have been up at 8 or 9 a.m. writing this. Too much "Grand Theft Auto: Vice City" the night before, perhaps?

Pick up the slack, F!