JEORDIE WHITE | BASE TENDENCIES
PRESS
Dead in Love
"This was one of the first songs we did. The main idea was to stay away from guitars and rock in a conventional way. It's got a strange goth tinge to it. Watching everyone play horns, clarinet, saxophone and flute at the same time was quite an experience. their faces were bright red and then at the end they all smiled."
I Wanna Make It Witchu
"My head was in a very weird place when I was doing this record. I think that's the time to try things your own band couldn't get away with. When Ii did the vocals I'd been up for two days straight."
Covered in Punk's Blood
"It's an aggressive instrumental song that Twiggy, Joey and I came up with. I think that the title says it all. It sounds like a pissed-off song so it needed a pissed-off title."
There Will Never Be a Better Time
"Nobody's ever applauded at a Desert Sessions before, but when that was finished we all stood up and applauded because it was so beautiful. It's a highlight of the ten Desert Sessions and the lyrics are heart-wrenching."
Crawl Home
"I came down from making dinner and they had all this music done and Polly was playing bass. Polly and I took it and made the female part the call, the male part the response to it."
I'm Here For Your Daughter
"It's very succinct. It's a great example of how lawless music really is. Like a little 30-second vignette is as important as a three-minute pop song or a ten-minute opus."
Powdered Wig Machine
"This feels like a 14th century ballroom waltz but done in the year 2240! There's a keyboard sound at the beginning, someone turned the 'on' switch and that came popping out."
In My Head...Or Something
"The second I heard this vocal melody I couldn't get it out of my head. Like that song 'Cant Get You Outta My Head'? Any dick on the street could sing it. A really good pop number should be effortless like that. And I think this song has that same infectious pop groove."
Holey Dime
"This is the first song we ever did. It's really got the awkwardness of the first song, but I think that's good. It has a soft intro and then it sounds like the Native Americans are about to attack. It shifts gears really hard. It's a huge collaboration."
A Girl Like Me
"This sounds really northern to me, like Joy Division or Echo & the Bunnymen. And Polly was like 'I've got something for this one!' It's got a really dark dance vibe going on in it too."
Creosote
"This is about a creosote bush, which is a kind of plant that grows in the desert. It's like a song someone from the movie deliverance would play. For this song, Alain Johannes and Dean Ween had met each other for about four minutes. Alain just walked over to Dean with a guitar and said 'Hi, my name's Alain, here's a guitar.' They sat on the porch and did this song. Pigfuckers."
Subcutaneous Phat
"The title's a reference to the fat inside a seal or a whale that keeps them warm. And I thought 'This song is tight'. It's so fat that it's subcutaneous phat. It doesnt even need lyrics. It doesnt care."
Bring It Back Gentle
"It's the longest song we recorded and one of the most collective works. Musically, you play one riff and everyone joins in and it becomes different. It's the spirit of everyone playing in the same room."
Sheperd's Pie
"In Desert Sessions past we've wanted to include what I call smart bombs. Something that's annoying, or bizarre. One night, we were all sitting around the dinner table and our mate Hutch came in and asked what we wanted for dinner. Twiggy got really excited, and started walking around the house singing 'Sheperd's pie, sheperd's pie...' Eventually everyone was out on the porch singing it. It was certainly one of those moments when I thought, 'What the fuck am I doing? But I'm glad I'm doing it' ."