Bret Alexander-Paul Smith-Ron Simasek

SOMEONE NICE (listen to MP3 sample)

THE SONG: Someone Nice was one of the two songs on "Perfect Smile" that had existed in some form prior to pre-production. We had messed around with the basic idea with The Badlees, but it always sounded too forced. The band tried too hard to make the song rock or to sound like "NOW". The Badlees lost interest in it pretty quick. A great song is a great song, but a lot of what makes a tune ring true is the context that you put it in. The instrumentation. The key. The attitude. The tempo. Some producers call it "framing". "Style is the conduit through which substance must flow". Tom Robbins said that. Context is everything. And the possibilities are endless. Anyway, "Someone Nice" was one of those rare tunes that got a second chance. A lot of perfectly good songs die on the vine because you dress them up in the wrong clothes. Bands are like that too…..The theme is basically "turn that frown upside down" and/or "nice guys finish last….. but be nice". Lots of black humor, I guess. I think I was listening to a lot of John Prine while I wrote this. I was also getting divorced. Not a good combo. Trust me. If I had to pick a song of mine to go on my tombstone, it would be the first verse and chorus of this one. "Gotta get up off the ground/ 'Cause time won't wait for you now". It has become one of my favorites.

THE RECORDING: Like I said, the framework for "Someone Nice" had been around for years. And the reason the song was never finished was a "context" problem. So when we dug the idea out of the garbage, the first thing we did was slow the song way down, which made a big difference. The Beatles had to slow down "Strawberry Fields Forever" by vari-speeding the tape, which obviously alters the pitch. Which (in the case of The Beatles) can be super cool. Other times not. We were lucky enough to realize we wanted things slower BEFORE we committed to tape. From that point, it was business as usual. We added a reoccurring 12-string riff that became the instrumental hook of the song. And, of course, the standard guitar, bass, drums set up. And pedal steel. And harmonicas. And on and on. The result is this really flowing, lush, folky vibe with tongue and cheek lyrics and delivery. I know we were trying to cop the groove and vibe of "Walls" from Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers. I believe "Someone Nice" is even the same tempo.

So, in the end, we found the song. The hardest part of making a record isn't playing the parts right. It's choosing the right parts. And making them feel good. That's a subtle thing. That's why these monster session players get paid so well to play the simplest stuff. It's all about choices…………..

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