Tequila Wind - Hot Ticket - Freedom
Tequila Wind, Hot Ticket, and Freedom – these are staple Rolling Blackout songs - we have posted live cuts of all these on youtube - 20 years of ground work on each and then some .. they can fit any show - anywhere - these cuts were get to shake of the nerves at Hyde Street and we just tabled them to focus on the new material back then so this go around we circled back to record vocals, layer in tracks from John, add some synths, and build the tracks. But these were all live cuts - the basic backbone is untouched for any - pretty sure one take each.
Part 1- Talking Tequila
 Erick getting ready to beat the toms with 5x MD421s |
Tequila Wind
Tequila Wind - just another love song, a love of life and dreams song - inspired by early trips to Hawaii and Mexico with my wife Ceily, surfing and also some half baked related reference paddling out not getting pulled back ascending like Point Break Bodhi into some stoned freebird transcendent journey to the other side – carried on the Tequila wind – it's just beautifully period lyrics - structured enough but not to much. The smoke is so thick only the lime chased can cut through. Tequila has a sister song called Starship Trooper which is even more on the nose - LOL. Anyway – the guitar lines are smooth and restrained ripping - west coast groove. Bill has this amazing vocal line over the chorus that he really refined over time - for the recording I backed his voice with the synth - he’s coming over that chorus a 4th up from from F-G-Am - hitting that D5 or 6 I think - it is in stratosphere - I'd have to be falsetto! And the middle lead section is pretty lush - melodic technical electric syrup lead. We’ve never not killed with this song - it fits like a glove - 100% live - never the same twice - this is older improvisation trio era stuff. We don't overthink it. What’s special about this recording - the tempo – Tequila has a mood … and the tempo varies – that day we had a little nervous energy – and a little good fortune - Erick just locked on this perfect tempo on the recording. 2 years later we re-did the vocals added in the synths and John punched in a subtle rhythm to warm it up.
The synth decorations have changed through the years. I have 20 years of demo recording with synth du jour changing over time. So there are some with laser effects - the Vortex patch on the Fantom XR was a goto for years. I gave up on picking the best of the past - f#$ it - we’ll do something new here. That felt right. (I also thought about the archives and digging out young vocal recordings - but honestly omg that would be so much work to find and de-archive and polish and line up transients - so you got us today) . That felt real.. It was hard to bring this to a final mix though. I struggled with the vocals - how to do it - then balancing Bill in, getting the spread - lifting the kit - getting the wind and synths right and balancing sound, bringing in another guitar. I second guessed this mix a lot – but I love the way it turned out - I especially love the Toms just owning the end as we pick up the final exit energy.