The Classroom // 2007

Paw Paw was a recording project circa 2007 consisting of long-time music collaborators Michael Young, David Megyesi, and Casey Dawson.  A lot of the songs we recorded together started with one of us recording a basic track and then we'd hand it off to the other to manipulate/contribute.  This is one of my favorite examples of that collaboration.

Version one of The Classroom was my composition which started out with Mike's Roland RS-09 String Machine I was borrowing at the time run through a delay and reverb pedals.  It conjured up My Bloody Valentine.  I then programmed the drum part using Roland CR-78 drum sounds and layered the Korg Monopoly melody over top of it.  Casey's vocal delivery is one of my favorite.


Mike spent a lot of time re-shaping the song, leaning more towards atmosphere rather than a driving lead synth part.  Dave's live drums were recorded. Mike played warm piano chords over the spacy synth strings.  The end of the song is a collection of Paw Paw outtakes clustered together and then takes you out with white noise and space echo. Mike's production makes the sound swim around your head and is an amazing song to listen to with headphones.




The Classroom
Give me the answers, fill in the forms
These blueprints have faded that I have ignored
They're lost in the circles you carefully made around us.
The spaces between us where lines don't connect
and motives you're teaching are still being checked
They're empty of reason and out of context, you told me

I'm solving the puzzle you left on the board
A simple equation your students ignored
There's many answers yet none of them ring true
The mystery fading, the problems unearthed
My greatest mistake was in faulty research
Believing in theory that I accepted from you so freely