Bret Alexander-Paul Smith-Ron Simasek

OPEN ENDED (listen to MP3 sample)

THE SONG: The world's only song about true love and how it relates to off track betting. This is the second song on "Perfect Smile" that existed before we made the record. My co-writer Mike and I had this tune in the can for years. It was never even presented as a candidate for any of our recordings. We loved it, but it never felt like it was time. The lyrics on "Open Ended" are all Mike's. Supposedly a true story. A lot of the music is Mike's too. The song used to be all verses, so I hacked one apart and made it the bridge. And we added a solo. The intro changes are sort of odd for a song like this, which is part of their charm. I love the last verse. "Little things are subtle ties to destinations/How big or small is ocean's wide". There is a movie, "Grand Canyon", that is based on the same idea. Seemingly insignificant events becoming defining moments over time. I think about that film sometimes when I hear this tune.

THE RECORDING: More Rick 12-strings, bass, and drums. If I remember correctly, I had a rough time getting the vocal to this one. About a day or two before the song was to be mixed, I came into the studio, put a microphone in the control room, and sang and engineered at the same time. That's the take on the record. I flew a piece of the chorus into a sampler and played the answer lines off a keyboard. The last verse has a neat spacey effect to go along with the "astronaut theme". Kind of suggests the visual of the lyric. That kind of thing just happens. We typically don't dictate or get into long discussions about what we are going for at any given moment in the recording process. We just go for it. We'll make a few vague, general suggestions and let whoever is playing add their flavor. No charts or detailed instructions. Almost never. The results are almost always superior to the hands on approach. Much more mystery and depth to things. Once you start over-thinking, you're dead……I get really pissed off when producers micro-manage music and musicians. I like to put the right guys in the right environment, point 'em in the right direction, and let them go. Sometimes you need a chart for specific things, but the lion share of what we do is by the seat of our pants. If I can't get what I want that way, I'm using the wrong guy.

Sometimes a musician will ask, "How do I get that BB King guitar sound?" We tell them, "You get an amp, a guitar, and then you go find BB King".

We work with a lot of young bands that don't realize that their limitations are every bit as important as their abilities. By knowing your limitations as a band and as musicians, you become more focused. You can't try and be all things to all people. Specialization, niche marketing, "branding"……whatever you want to call it. When a business is trying to "brand" their product, they are trying to own a word in the consumers mind. Fed Ex, for example, owns "overnight". Great bands and artists own a sound. AC/DC, The Stones, The Byrds, Black Sabbath, Nirvana, Johnny Cash, U2. You can recognize their music as theirs in 5 seconds. Almost always. Even if you have never heard the tune. The variations are endless, but the core philosophy is always there. As an artist or musician, if you can own a sound you will have accomplished a hundred times more than any of the hometown virtuosos who can play anything that is put in front of them.

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