King's X (L-R): Ty Tabor, Dug Pinnick, Jerry GaskillProbably no King's X album has been as highly anticipated among the group's devoted following as their 13th studio offering overall, Three Sides Of One (stream it here). And the reason is simple: Their last LP, XV, arrived 14 years before the 2022 arrival of TSOO. However, the group – singer/bassist Dug Pinnick, singer/guitarist Ty Tabor, and singer/drummer Jerry Gaskill – never split up and continued to play shows over the period when there was no new music.
Pinnick, who in the past has spoken with us about songwriting and provided a track-by-track overview of his last solo album, Joy Bomb, here takes us through Three Sides Of One a track at a time, discussing the lyrical inspiration behind each song and explaining how the group came up with the music.
Pinnick, who in the past has spoken with us about songwriting and provided a track-by-track overview of his last solo album, Joy Bomb, here takes us through Three Sides Of One a track at a time, discussing the lyrical inspiration behind each song and explaining how the group came up with the music.
Let It Rain
I pulled out my 12-string and thought about just a real hard rock song. And when the music came out, I really thought it rocked. When we went into the studio, we took the bass out on the first and second verse, which kind of made the song for me. It stepped the song up a whole lot.Lyrically, it's just sort of wishful thinking. It's just the world is full of fear, and especially in the United States, everybody is afraid. God, they're so afraid of each other – to the point of hatred and separation. So, I was thinking water washes things away – washes things clear. So, "Let it rain and wash away the fear."
Flood Pt. 1
"Flood" was a magnum opus. It was a very long song. I decided to take some of the parts out and make a whole other song out of it. And I call that "Flood Pt. 2," which maybe someday everyone will hear. But when I condensed it, it was such a bizarre, heavy… this Madness kind of vibe – "Our house, in the middle of the street." I loved that song. So, that was sort of my interpretation of, "Let's take Meshuggah and put Madness in the middle of it." That's what I was thinking.When I listened to it, I thought, "This is almost stupid. They're not even going to like it." Then when the words came in, lyrically, I was just thinking about how I'm a problem solver – I always want to see both sides and figure out what the truth is, and make my own conclusion.
And my conclusion about mankind is we need a flood. I used to think all we needed was love, but I realize now that there are people that aren't capable of love and don't have that feeling. They say 40% of humans don't have empathy. So, why am I singing about everybody needs love? It's clearly not the answer. And I thought, "Well, maybe what we need is a flood – just reset it."
Nothing But The Truth
I was trying to do a "Purple Rain." I thought about Prince and Curtis Mayfield, and it just turned out like a straight-up soul song, Memphis, Stax, Volt kind of tune. Just the only thing it didn't have was the Memphis horns. And lyrically, it was a true relationship of someone in my life that I was interested in and they just would not settle up and tell me the truth. So, I wrote a song – like I write about a song about everything I go through. I think people relate to it, because a lot of people won't tell the truth in relationships.What did producer Michael Parnin bring to the Three Sides Of One sessions? Quite a lot, according to Dug.
"I like to put it this way – he steered the boat. And he saw the vision. He saw the end result. So, we trusted him. It's not like he sat down and said, 'Do this, do that.' It was sort of like whatever we suggested, he exhausted it. And as a result of it, we are really, really excited about this record – because we just came in and did us, and he came in and pieced it all together and really made a musical masterpiece in my mind. From him."
"We did everything analog, except for Pro Tools. But everything that went down was tubes and no digits. When it was mastered, it was mastered with tape saturation and tube EQs. So, everything is completely analog the best we could make it, and we did it because we knew it was going to be out on record. We thought about records more than anything. We didn't think of CDs or streaming. It was all about making a great sounding record."
"That's why the record is played on 45 – it's a double record, just three songs to every side. It sounds really good, sonically. It's not your really loud, brick wall, scratchy sound that we're used to. It sounds like an old record, where the bass is loud and the kickdrum, and the cymbals will sizzle. Everything is really present."
"I like to put it this way – he steered the boat. And he saw the vision. He saw the end result. So, we trusted him. It's not like he sat down and said, 'Do this, do that.' It was sort of like whatever we suggested, he exhausted it. And as a result of it, we are really, really excited about this record – because we just came in and did us, and he came in and pieced it all together and really made a musical masterpiece in my mind. From him."
"We did everything analog, except for Pro Tools. But everything that went down was tubes and no digits. When it was mastered, it was mastered with tape saturation and tube EQs. So, everything is completely analog the best we could make it, and we did it because we knew it was going to be out on record. We thought about records more than anything. We didn't think of CDs or streaming. It was all about making a great sounding record."
"That's why the record is played on 45 – it's a double record, just three songs to every side. It sounds really good, sonically. It's not your really loud, brick wall, scratchy sound that we're used to. It sounds like an old record, where the bass is loud and the kickdrum, and the cymbals will sizzle. Everything is really present."
Give It Up
I had turned 70 – I'll be 72 in a couple weeks – so that was a while ago. It just hit me. I was like, "Damn. It's almost over. What are you going to do?" And I thought, "I'm going to ride it out and enjoy my life." "What's my biggest fear? I might not like what's over there." So, I'm not going to rush to get there. I'm not thinking about suicide or anything like that – I'll just do what I can to be as healthy as I can until that time comes.There's a line that says, "Some people call me wise. Born today, soon you die." It's that simple. That ain't wisdom – that's just truth. "So live another day, that's the battle it's true. And if you find your groove, hang onto whatever keeps you." It's sort of an encouraging song.
And I wanted to write a song that you could dance to. You can bounce around to. Something simple. Nothing complicated or hard. I love simple songs, and throwing the key changes in was a lot of fun – the half-steps, for the musical people that like to hear those changes. I've never heard a song change and go a half-step up three times. "My Generation" went up one time. And a lot of songs will do that "half-step lift." It was a fun song.
Photo by Mark Weiss. Check out his classic Van Halen photos.All God's Children
Ty wrote that song. As far as I'm concerned, musically, it's Black Sabbath meets Black Sabbath. And it's awesome. I love the brutally heavy Black Sabbath vibe, and then then the beautiful acoustic stuff. It just turned into a really nice masterpiece. A cascade of beautiful music and brutality. I really like that song a lot. It's fun to play.Take the Time
Jerry wrote that song. I love his lyrics, also, because he spoke his truth. Musically, it's a great pop song. We approached it that way. And just all the candy and the coloring of it... I would love to hear it on Top 40 radio.Festival
Ty wrote that song. It's just a fun song. For bass, it's my synchronicity moment. But it's just like a Foo Fighters-type rock song. That was the first song we worked out. That was the first song that Ty played for us from his batch of demos, and I immediately got excited about it. It's just a rockin' song.Swipe Up
I was really listening to Meshuggah a lot, and came up with the whole song. I thought, "This might be too much for King's X." But I played it for the guys. I had the drum machine going like crazy, and Jerry just looked at me and said, "You want me to do THAT?!" After some conversation, we just said, "Jerry, you just plow through it like you would do it normally and put 'Jerry' on it." And when he did, the song turned into a totally different song, and it was King's X and we got excited. That's a fun song, too. Lyrically, it's literally about using your iPhone.When Doug was asked, "If you had to pick one song that sums up King's X, what would it be?", he found the answer a bit difficult.
"Are you f--king kidding me? There is no song that could sum up King's X! There really isn't. It all depends on how much King's X you've listened to and which records you have. You can name a record and say what sums it up... well, you can't even do that. Because I'll tell you man, from 'In The New Age' to 'Over My Head' to 'Mudd' to 'Bebop,' it's like, 'Jesus.'"
"And people have said that to me all the time, 'How do you describe your band?' And I say, 'Can you come up with something? Because there's nothing that defines us.' Because all you can say is we're a little bit of everything, and not too much of nothing... but The Beatles."[Laughs]
"Are you f--king kidding me? There is no song that could sum up King's X! There really isn't. It all depends on how much King's X you've listened to and which records you have. You can name a record and say what sums it up... well, you can't even do that. Because I'll tell you man, from 'In The New Age' to 'Over My Head' to 'Mudd' to 'Bebop,' it's like, 'Jesus.'"
"And people have said that to me all the time, 'How do you describe your band?' And I say, 'Can you come up with something? Because there's nothing that defines us.' Because all you can say is we're a little bit of everything, and not too much of nothing... but The Beatles."[Laughs]
Holidays
I just love the song because it's straight-up Beatles. It's so much fun to play those Paul McCartney lines. But Jerry would have to tell you what he's singing about. I don't like to talk about other people's lyrics, because I have no clue what they're talking about. Or if I do, I feel like I would interpret it wrong. But that song is a fun song to play – I get a kick out of playing the bassline. And I love how it goes into the ending, where Ty does that long lead break – sort of like George Harrison kind of vibe.
Watcher
I love that song. That's Ty's song, too. It sounds like a King's X song from the early days, but yet, with a twist. It's got that signature Ty Tabor guitar tone, too.She Called Me Home
You know about Jerry almost dying [Jerry suffered two heart attacks]. I was in tears when I heard the first line of the song:Like my brother told me yesterday
Stop all this nonsense get out there and play
Well I was thinking maybe fade away
But now I'm here to stay
When I heard the song, I just thought, "Violins. Cellos. We've got to build this song into a beautiful pop song that can be played on the radio. Top 40 or something."
And we worked on that song. I mean, not worked on it musically as much as building it up. It's one of my favorite songs because of the orchestration. I never got a chance to do orchestration on a King's X record, and I got to come up with all those parts. I think we all got to do things on this record that we normally don't do. It was a lot of fun because of that.
Every Everywhere
I was trying to write a Beatles song. A straight-up "What The World Needs Now Is Love" and "I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing In Perfect Harmony." That's where my head was at when I wrote that song. I think I nailed it. [Laughs]For me, the whole record is dark – I like to write about dark things. And this record, there's a lot of darkness, but not a lot of hope. I thought that the whole world is crying to love everyone, and I thought that was the "butterflies" to put on the cake when it was done.
August 31, 2022
Get (or stream) the album at kingsxrocks.com
More on Dug at dugnation.net
Further reading:
Oral History of King's X - An Excerpt
Interview with Tomas Haake of Meshuggah
Fact or Fiction: Black Sabbath
Fact or Fiction: '90s Metal
More Song Writing
