By Chris Moore:

After a handful of very late nights this week, I slept in again until after noon today.  One thing led to another, and I didn’t even begin recording until later in the day.  Even so, I was able to work out the background vocals to “Work Time, Get in Line,” as well as a series of intricate acoustic guitar solos.

The trouble with “Work Time” is that it is a song that deals in criticism: of the corporate mentality, of rigid order, of patterns in our lives that are not “supposed” to be broken.  Thus, the instrumental break is supposed to reflect the chaos of a mind trying to break free from this unnatural order, attempting to be free in some way.

This may sound interesting in theory, but there is a fine line between chaos and controlled chaos.  I did use a metronome for this song — one of the few tracks on the album without drums — but even so there are a couple moments where the tempo is imperfect.  (The takes that I did that were perfectly in tempo ultimately came across as flat and without feeling.)   Of course, one of those aforementioned moments is in the instrumental break.

In the end, after much playing along to the song, listening to playbacks, and mixing and remixing the song, I’m proud of the result.  I’ve been worried about pulling off this track from the beginning — there’s a reason it’s one of the last songs I came back to complete! — but, after Mike instructing me in how to play congas and the acoustic and background vocal work I did today, I’m happy to report that it will make it to the album as a track I’m very proud of.

By the time I finished this song, it was hot and sweaty in the stale air of the balmy evening, so I simply had no energy to begin the final track I’m working on.

Until tomorrow…