what's it all about?

written specifically for the 7th12th collective film 'the killing zone', there was a very interesting brief to write a 'pub song' to be played in the back of a chat-up bar scene.  the film centres around a professional hitman who is trying to retire but his best friend and girlfriend are about to get jiggy with it.  the song lyrics use the analogy of the hitman's trade for the damage done by one human to another.  sticks, stones and words all hurt.  the producer and director liked the way the lyrics fitted in so i'm really chuffed that it made it into the final film.

instruments & tone sources

crunchy guitar (red ibanez) through sans amp.  solo guitars through the sans amp and then through a really neat little t.c.electronic chorus pedal which just sounds awesome.  i've always been a huge fan of alex lifeson's sound (rush) and approach to sound creation.  he used to use t.c. stuff during the late 80's and i thought this sound captured a zeitgeist that was a nice homage for me.  there's a B3 organ in there from the JV again and a synth pad from the guitar synth.  the bass was DI'd straight into the VS and i think is weaker for it, but a bit of compression seemed to boost it a little.

the vocals again are closed miked with the nt1.

production comments

well, the vocals.  for years i've been predominantly a backing singer for alison eve and therefore singing in the top part of my register.  when i was writing 'within these walls' i experimented with using the lower part of my range and was surprised that it had an interesting quality to it.  i think i nicked the idea for the high echo vocal from a marillion track called 'cathedral wall' where steve hogarth does something fairly similar.  i love the effect, but you could never use it again without becoming cliched.

so the irony is that the vocal sound i'm most used for doesn't actually appear anywhere on the album!

i hate writing lyrics, but the intervention of helen turner to help reshape the first draft over a couple of glasses of merlot added a nice sparkle to some of the imagery.  so thanks h!