Eclectic rock of the instrumental kind; fans of guitar music should feel right at home.

MODUS OPERANDI

I first heard the phrase 'Modus Operandi' when watching a favourite singer of mine being interviewed on TV. The interviewer was asking the usual questions about song writing and album making and said; "so I suppose that was your modus operandi?" By the magic of the interweb I discovered it was a Latin phrase meaning 'a person's preferred method of operating. I thought it would make a great title since playing upbeat instrumental rock is the way I like to do things. It is the opening track on the album as I felt it would be a positive way to start things off. The verse melody was the result of an inspiring jam session, and it steadily grew into a riff-based rock track with an atmospheric chorus.

STEALTH

This is an unapologetic hard rock stomper of a tune. The atmosphere this time is rather more edgy, with heavy riffs followed by a full attack wah wah solo. The idea for the verse melody goes back to a song I was working on in 2007 which I accidentally stumbled across recently; the chorus and solo was re-written, and once it was all pieced together it seemed to fit in well for this album. I felt this track, with an almost anxious sound to it, was a good candidate for a title like Stealth; since it could represent the tension of a spy trying to keep hidden from view.

EASY DOES IT

This is a song of three very different sides. Its funky and rocky, with a big chorus adding to the depth, while the two solos stick to the rock side of things. The structure is quite complicated, which helps to keep things fresh and surprising, and the drum track is one of the best on the album. This track also required a few different guitar sounds, probably six altogether; bouncing from clean to various different levels of overdrive. Some changes are subtle while others are far more obvious! The bass has a special part to play as well, adding some interesting touches to the verses while the guitar riff is plodding away.

GROOVY TRAIN

It may be one of the shorter tracks but the relentless momentum means there is still fair bit going on here. The strange (almost robotic) guitar sound you hear for most of the track is from a fuzz octave pedal, which is the perfect effect for the verse rhythm, the chorus riff and the solo. This song just won't do without that sound. The chorus melody is one of my favourites on this album and the drum track benefits from its simplicity this time around. I felt the drums sounded like an old steam train; this painted a picture in my head of a multi coloured cartoon steam train chugging around a modern city, no rails, just driving with great confidence next to the cars. It just goes to show that delving deep into the imagination can bring out the most bizarre ideas and in this case that is exactly what happened!

DIRTY RED BOX

Excited by the arrival of a new distortion pedal a few years back, I decided to write a tune with it. This one is quite dark and eerie for the most part, due to some strange chord sequences that required equally strange melodies. Things brighten up when the solo comes along before crashing back into the chorus at the end. The sound on the intro is actually a wah wah pedal, even though it sounds more like a synthesizer. Sometimes you can get the most unusual sounds from the gear you've had for years, simply by changing the order it sits in the effects chain. wah's are a classic example of this. The title is a light hearted attempt at explaining that the distortion pedal inspired the track; dirt is guitarist slang for distortion, it's... Red, and box is another slang word for effects pedal.

SINGING SUN

I found this title on a list I'd put together a while back with various ideas for song names, and I started to think how I could write an instrumental that would make people think of the sun and summer. It was the first time I'd been inspired by a title, rather than the inspiration just falling out of the sky in the wonderful way it usually does for me. So, after some serious thought and a good few weeks I finally came up with chords and riffs that I thought fit the image in my head. The solo takes a different route, adding some interesting contrasts in atmosphere and approach. Overdrive and distortion are avoided here, further increasing the diversity of the album.

DANGER COLOURS

Another change of approach here; ragged over driven bass kicks things off while the wah wah is used in two different ways this time; in the rhythm of the verse and then at the front of the breakdown riff. The verse represents the danger side of things, while the chorus sounds more hopeful and uplifting. To shake things up even more the bass gets its own solo spot with just the drum track to back it up. The lead guitar sound has also changed a bit, there is a slight chorus effect layered onto my usual high gain sound, it manifests itself as an atmospheric embellishment rather than an obvious change, but is a nice addition none the less.

CONFUSED

The acoustic returns to rhythm duties for the first time since the opening track, and keeps things simple. A single chord sequence drives the rhythm of the entire track, allowing the expression of the lead guitar to come through. This is a thoughtful ballad consisting of carefully improvised verses and a big chorus. The bass is quietly enhancing things in the background and a special drum track adds more magic to a delicate and reflective composition. It's all about feel with ballads like this, playing as naturally as possible, keeping the emotion and allowing for the odd quirk here and there. The guitar sound in the chorus is just perfect for the track, providing the smoothness and width required to make it work.

MASTER OF CHROME

This rather odd title was inspired by my favourite guitar amplifier, with a huge chrome grill, which I used to make the demo of this song. Ironically by the time I recorded the album version, the amp was no more! This is perhaps a bit of an oddball track, with an atmospheric verse followed by some very unusual chord sequences and an eerie chorus. The solo is also quite tense, but the combination of all this, along with a good groove makes for an interesting tune. The bass really has something to say here and gets very much involved with the verses and choruses.

DEEP IN A DAYDREAM

The second deep ballad of the album required some different guitar sounds; starting off with a much more pronounced chorus effect than previously used, followed by a lead sound with far less intensity than normal. The delicate verse improvisations required extra concentration and I decided to put myself in the zone to help me put some real emotion into it. I continued this approach right until the last note of the solo. All this is accompanied by a very minimal drum track, putting the focus on the most important groove elements to begin with and gradually increasing intensity in the choruses and solo. Unusually the song barely uses the snare drum at all.

A PARALLEL THOUGHT

The title for the closing track was inspired by a chapter of a book which did its best to explain the many different theories behind parallel universes. I found the thought of several different versions of you and I acting out all the alternatives of every decision we ever made, and leading entirely different lives fascinating. But I also found it frightening. Full of inspiration, I decided to write a song that represented both my excitement and my fear of this idea. An alternative tuning (drop D) was used throughout the rhythm section, which lent itself well to both the excited wonder in the verse and the intensity of the bridge, chorus and solo sections.