The Open Door to Cellophane Jane
Well, let's see here.
It was the Spring of 2017 and I was feeling restless. My band of 4 years had just unceremoniously ended, passions were evolving into new ventures, and here I was with a hard drive full of 366 ideas. I'd always record all my demos by myself, but I never considered putting those out as a legitimate release. Initially I thought, "maybe I'll do something akin to Leon Russell, except I'll have two of everything so I can hop around live." Now, as technically cool and fun as that would be, the logistics of bringing and miking all that equipment ended up sequestering it to the wayside. Either way, why not double down and take some demos to the next level. The only stipulation was, the tracks can't lose that feel. Most of my demos were always one take situations and the "vibe" was always held intact. Trying to recreate that with inherent possibility of OVER working something meant that there needed to be some restrictions.
While prepping to record what would have been the final ep for my last band, I purchased a bunch of metal cassette tapes with the intention of my own small press reproduction; hi-lo-fi at its finest. Lucky me, they were sitting there waiting to be recorded. Why not make that the restriction? Running the tape at full speed would give me the highest quality while also putting a definitive stopper in the overworking idea. There's only 4 tracks. The drums would have to be mono, room for only 1 guitar, bass, and vocals. I could sacrifice guitar or bass for keyboard (like on We Used to Be) but that limit led to more intimate performances and with it, more concrete compositions.
I limited my equipment choices to a very small array of instruments. My first acoustic, my trusty sg custom, the rickenfaker, precision bass, casio keys, and whatever drum set was up at the time. For guitar sounds, I used the tried and true zoom in conjunction with my old bandmates digitech for some pseudo amp modeling. For more fx, my modded Dano echo and the ole donner multi fx. A big part of the condensed set up had to do with time. There was no time to set up a different kit and still have the energy to record after working 8 hours. Or to spend time miking an amplifier and perfecting the sound. Monday was right around the corner and it was time to roll!
Come Monday after 5:30, I'd roll downstairs and start getting everything together to record. A lot of times, I'll just get a rhythm started in my head and start stomping it out while I'm walking. That will usually evolve into a melody that plays over and over in my head, soon turning into an audible hum. By that point, what am I doing if I don't act on it? I sit down at the machine, hit record, and out comes "Rita (The Merry-Go-Round). Generally, it's a music first, lyrics second kinda relationship over here; I'm lucky if I even get the melody going before the words flow.
Before I knew it, I had all the basics laid down in two days. Drums on Wednesday. Bass and keys on Thursday. Vocals on Friday. Saturday: Rest. Mix and master on Sunday. Monday: what's the band called? What's the logo? It's 6 AM and I need to leave for work by 7:30; there's no time to waste here.
When I was 13, my brother dove deep into the mystical meanderings of Marc Bolan and Tyranosaurus Rex (aka T.Rex). Among the many songs that I played religiously on repeat, Telegram Sam had its own special place in the neverending rotation of The Slider and Electric Warrior. Rebounding through my head with its playful and perfect rhymes, I'd scribble my own characters and ideas as a means of "replicating the masters" to learn from the best. "Purple Pop Pete" evolved into "Insane Layne the Mundane" and "Telegram Sam" to Cellophane Jane. "Cellophane" for the flashy material that adorned our Easter (roll away the stone) baskets and "Jane" for the Jane's Addiction tape I had tucked away in my sock drawer (I was 13 after all!)
Eventually the lyric was used in a Leon Russell-esque boogie tune for my old band, The Pistolettes, called "Gold Coin" as the opening line of the record. In a plot twist, the very first song at the very first show I played live as Cellophane Jane was "Gold Coin"! High fives all around.