Turnaround

I know I know see all the people waving; They’re on their way home; Not much to say no-one to understand them more than you know.

Love will find a way

Are we going to turn this thing around?

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Turnaround started because I wanted to write a song in a strange key. Neil Finn from Crowded House had expressed a love for F-minor so I thought I’d give the key a crack. Also a lot of songs I loved had a strong opening riff or melody so I was doodling around in the F-minor until – bang – I had that nice moody, jangly intro. I then discovered the verse chords that went with the melody.

I never wrote the lyrics down. I just kept playing the music and adding words until it got silly. Then I’d stop repeat and try again until the words got silly again. I had no idea what the hell it was about really.

At the time there was an increasing paranoia in Australia about boat arrivals from The North and the words started to evolve around this theme.

Then I got to the tag line, the hook, the chorus…. “Are we going to turn this thing around?”.

My logical brain flipped. Are we going to turn the boats around? Not really my politics man. Are we going to turn the situation around? What the fuck are we turning around?

Then I thought, the lyrics fit so who cares if it doesn’t make complete sense. In fact I think music works well with ambiguity. It forces the listener’s mind to at least engage with the ideas and make their own interpretation.

“In jazz, a turnaround is a passage at the end of a section which leads to the next section. This next section is most often the repetition of the previous section or the entire piece or song” – The Harvard Concise Dictionary of Music and Musicians.

I knew there was musical term “turnaround”, and I figured it’s a good name for song, so I had the title. Nirvana had used it back on Insecticide so I was in good company.

The song then evolved incredibly during the recording process. The final mix is almost unrecognisable from the original take. There are background synths, pads and sirens. The vocals are distorted and flanged. The original guitar solo was augmented with some background flourishes that then themselves became the solo. And there are lots of vocal overdubs and harmonies.

And Jack mixed the hell out of it and gave it a strong, angry, balanced mix. It became the perfect opener to the EP.

Over and out of your imagination; Speaker on the end of a phone; Caught in the eye of your imagination more than you know.

I’m not afraid

How we gonna turn this thing around?

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