Joe: "We knew going in that this was going to be a challenge lyrically for us, as we tend to shy away from themes that are too obvious or too common. With the heaviness of the opening section we were able to make the lyrics a bit more pointed and biting, but the softer passages that followed called for a different treatment."

Ray: "The analogy of driving in your car where the scenery repeats endlessly seemed to fit the mood of that section and still make the point about the monotony of pop radio. Joe brought in the bulk of the lyrics, we reviewed them and tried them out, tightened them up a bit, and found that they gave that section a nice sense of imagery."

It was important to the band that 'Salvolatile' not come across as preachy or overly pessimistic. The two had conceived several alternate endings for the song that were aimed at emphasizing the fact that creative music may be hard to find, but it is not yet dead. Ultimately the softest of the closing sections was chosen as the final statement for the song...

Joe: "It was important to us for the song to end on a high point - something optimistic. The closing section is very soft and delicate by design, to sort of create the sense that there is still a lot of fantastic music out there if we just listen for it."

Joe: "I was definitely getting into Isis around the time that Ray and I wrote 'Twilight' and I think you can hear some of their influence in the track. I was listening to their album 'In The Absence Of Truth' almost non-stop and I just loved the way they could build an entire song on one basic groove. They just grow it and evolve it until it becomes this new thing altogether."

The pair set out working on a track based primarily on a single groove that would continue to grow during the song and upon which they could layer different sounds and textures. Once the rhythm tracks were completed, Joe set out to pen some working lyrics for the track while Ray worked out a heavier riff to serve as the mid-song counterpoint...

Ray: "We're both fairly restless musically, so it is difficult for us to stay with just one melody or groove for too long. The way 'Twilight' was coming together, I knew that a really heavy and electric section in the middle would provide some stark contrast and help to reinforce the concept of a bright midday against the dim light of dawn and dusk."

Joe: "Once Ray and I decided to start writing together, of course we wanted to try to write this long elaborate piece, in the same vein as '2112' or 'Close To The Edge.' We had come up with some nice sections, but some of them were really different from the other pieces we had. The transitions in and out were really causing us some fits. I remember sitting behind the drumkit, looking over at Ray, and telling him that we were biting off more than we could chew."

After agreeing to scale back their efforts in order to make a track that flowed more easily between its various sections, the band focused on the strongest sections and lyrics they had written to that point. The new arrangement had an aggressive intro that gave way to a delicate acoustic section which was punctuated by a heavy riff-based bridge section. It was then that Ray realized that the songwriting partnership held some promise...

Ray: "Obviously it was still very early in the creative process for us. We enjoyed playing together but we still weren't sure our efforts would bear any sort of fruit. As the first real demo version of 'Meniscus' came together, I think we both felt that we might be able to come up with some cool stuff together. But we also knew we had a long way to go."

The song would exist in a rough demo form for nearly a year and a half before the guys circled back to complete it. As is their style, Headend prefers to live with a song for awhile to decide what works and what doesn't. 'Meniscus' ended up with some significant revisions when the duo revisited their first composition...

Ray: "We had originally recorded a short Spanish guitar interlude as a bridge section between the heavy riff in the middle of the song and the softer acoustic ending. The interlude was nice, but neither of us felt it really stood up after repeat listens. We ended up dropping that part entirely and coming up with the moodier groove section which is in there now, of course making the song longer - as is often the result when we tinker with the arrangements."

Ray: "The creative output during the NDW sessions was pretty extensive. We actually had to get a second whiteboard for the studio to keep track of all the ideas. We started with just a couple of basic melodies and it evolved into this 14 minute piece."

The NDW writing sessions were put on hiatus for a couple of months as Joe left to deal with the loss of his mother to cancer. When the pair regrouped in the studio weeks later, there was a newfound energy...

Joe: "It was very fitting that we had conceived NDW to be this piece to cover the wide range of human emotion, and here I was going through many of the same things myself. Many of the lyrics I wrote for this track reflect the confusion and doubt and loss I felt at that time. But every cloud has a silver lining. We had so many ideas on the table that it actually helped to take a break from it for a while so we could come back fresh. I had forgotten just how packed the whiteboard was with different ideas until we returned to the studio."

Back in the studio, the band was able to quickly settle on a final arrangement, record a demo of the track, and make their final adjustments to the lyrics...

Ray: "We finished the song very quickly after we resumed the sessions. At first the thought of recording all of this was a daunting task, but it flowed very smoothly. By that point, we were getting used to recording these tracks as a duo, and our approach to recording was a lot more structured by then. Listening to the playback of the completed track for the first time in the studio was certainly a defining moment for us. I think it was then that we felt like we were really discovering our voice."

Joe: "'Origins' was the third track that Ray and I started working on for the album. To that point we had rough versions of 'Meniscus' and 'Ascend' completed, but we really wanted to try our hand at a longer track. I also had this desire to feature an extended guitar solo, very moody and soulful, where Ray could showcase some of his talents. We started building around that concept, and once we got working on it in earnest, 'Origins' came together surprisingly fast."

Sharing lyrical duties for the track, Joe and Ray were able to create a working demo version of 'Origins' in relatively short order. The initial track clocked in at over nine minutes in length. Listening to the playbacks in the studio, the duo were convinced that they had finally nailed a long-form track that held together musically and thematically...

Ray: "We were really starting to push our boundaries at that time. We initially wanted to make 'Meniscus' a longer track, but it just wasn't happening for us, so we had to scale things back. The same was basically true with 'Ascend' in that the tracks suffered whenever we tried to extend them. But 'Origins' was different from the beginning - it was very pliable. With the extended guitar solo section in the middle, the entire track opened up. The song covers a lot of influences, from the country twang at the outset to the solo section with its hint of 'Echoes' to the tribal drum piece that Joe put together. We threw a lot of ideas at that song and most of them were able to stick."

When it came time to transform the demo version into the final album version, the band encountered a bit of turbulence. They had grown to love Ray's completely improvised guitar solos of the demo version and found it difficult to recapture the same feeling when doing the final recording of 'Origins'...

Joe: "'Origins' was one of the last tracks we recorded for the album because we both knew that we weren't likely to get a perfect recreation. The demo had issues such that we couldn't use it as the final version for the album. And so we began the process of trying to duplicate the song, and play it better where we could, so that it would be as good as we could make it. Ray was able to nail to extended middle solo in one take, but the final guitar solo which really gives the track a soaring high-energy ending proved problematic. But after several dozen takes, Ray laid down a solo even better than he had on the demo. We were done."

Ray: "We had some great ideas for 'Ascend' when we first started working on it, and some of the demos were promising, but we never really felt that we nailed it. The long rock jam outro, however, existed pretty much from the start of the writing sessions for that tune. Through all of the rewrites of 'Ascend' the closing section always made it past the screening process."

Having completed all of the other full-length tracks for the album, the pair turned their attentions once again to 'Ascend.' With the finish line in sight, the band decided to approach the song from a completely new angle...

Joe: "That track always gave us fits, because we kind of liked the early demos, but not to the level where we knew it was done. So when it was time to dust 'Ascend' off once more, we basically approached it with the mindset that we were just writing a brand new tune. That decision really allowed us to bring in some cool parts that we wouldn't have considered had we just been trying to tighten up the previous arrangements. It ended up becoming this very progressive tune with drastic tempo and meter changes, and I think ultimately it is a great track to tie up the album."

With the sharp changes in tempo and meter came new challenges in the recording process as well. What ended as a very enjoyable writing and arranging effort to create the final version of 'Ascend' became a daunting task for the band once the tape was rolling...

Ray: "We usually diagram out our tunes on this large whiteboard in the studio, and even though our songs are fairly long, there are stretches in each of the songs where things are fairly consistent for a bit. But 'Ascend' really had some tough changes in it, so we had to get pretty detailed with our notes on the board. In the end, the song was very much recorded in individual pieces in the studio because we didn't have a lot of time to rehearse with the schedules. Nowadays, though, we can play it live without too much trouble - it's actually one of my favorite tracks to play live because of the variations in it."