Lyrics: The title of this song was basically stolen. I met a belly dancer at a flamenco club in NY. I was telling her about an author friend of mine Tom Farber (who I met through Max Track) who wrote a book called “On Water” which I was reading and loving. She in turn told me about this great book “Caught Inside” by Daniel Duane that her friend recently gave her depicting the life of a surfer in Santa Cruz for a year. Very coincidentally Tom Farber was in town. We were talking about his book when I mentioned “Caught Inside” to him. Turns out Tom was Daniel’s writing professor at Berkeley and a bit of a mentor to him as well. Sushi! So I wrote the lyric with Daniel’s book title and the influence of tom’s book all tied into my life.
Most of the lyrics came after coming home from a surf session at Robert Moses beach with my brother Patrick. He was driving and I was scribbling on scrap paper. The literal meaning of being caught inside is when one is paddling through a set that is breaking before them and they have no choice but to eat it. The song is a basic metaphor for being in the trappings of one’s own mind set with a sense of having no way out. It is also a question: do we unconsciously set ourselves up to fall to see if the Universe is watching and wants us to learn something? And after you may have come away from a situation in a better position why do you actually feel like shit? There are a few references to things going on in my life at the time like the post-grief period of a relationship, changes in my band and the uncertainty of where I was headed. I felt jaded and raw, sick of the monotonous stretches in between times of grand events hence the “sets and lulls” reference from Tom’s book.
I actually just started reading “Caught Inside” after finally ordering it from Amazon and was promised to be introduced to Daniel by another friend of mine. As for Tom – I must thank him for letting me steal.
Music: The music started on guitar in a way many of my ideas do, doodling while talking to someone. I was in Florida doing some work with my friend Jack Stein at a studio in Miami. That night I was sleeping on the studio floor; actually a very comfy shag rug. Talking to Jack and friends the music was forming. It was the verse, which of course I had to throw a weird chord into (the 4th one) b/c I get bored with regular chords. The bridge is straight up Filter from Jack and I listening to Almagut at the time. I had a different chorus that Toby wrote but he left the band at the time to have his kid. This was kind of a blessing in disguise b/c the chorus I came up with is one of my favorite chord progressions I’ve written. This was the first song Andrew played on with us and I thought he did a great job – a nice laid back feel and cool ride cymbal work. Taylor as usual found all the odd notes and made them sound great. And the harmonies, gotta have the harmonies!
Interviews, Music and Other Obscurities
