You Only Want Rain Because You’re On Fire

Influences

DJ Shadow, “Stem/Long Stem”

Story

I started the song after this one first, then realized that going from “Gyre” to it would jar, so I made the first song as a transitioning palate cleanser.  It’s named for a friend’s summer enduring Washington wildfires and Twitter.  With all the irrational bias accusations on Twitter, I imagined someone saying that title, that someone wanted it to rain instead of be sunny because of their own personal bias.  It’s ridiculous, but many things are. 

I kept the asymmetrical time signature aspect of the pieces around it – “Gyre” is in 5/4, the first half of this is 22/4 transitioning to 7/4, and the second half is 30/4 [(7+6+5+4+8)/4, more precisely] that becomes 7/4.  But, to lift the mood, I made the song bright and direct and math-punky (my friend is direct, so I wanted to honor that).

To be candid here, I somehow forget on the regular that this song exists. It did surprisingly well with internet radio play, though, and I’ve had one listener tell me it’s a favorite off this album. Sometimes energy covers a multitude of audio oddities, I guess.

Some press about it

“This progressive approach to sounds and sonic landscapes continues on “You Only Want Rain Because You’re On Fire”, which manages to couple an organ with a rousing acoustic guitar and those guitar tubes heard in the uncertain parts of movies in which the protagonist or antagonist undergoes some seminal event.” – breakingandentering.net (the “guitar tubes” are a baritone guitar found in Omnisphere)

“Offers an acoustic guitar, bringing in a warmer, more grounded element that contrasts the electronic beats.” – Madison Murray, Audible Addixion

Next song: A Surrender Due in 2007