I still remember the first song I ever wrote and recorded myself: Cheesy Fingers. This would have been probably 1990 or thereabouts. So I’d have been around 17, using a church-liberated Sony two-track reel-to-reel in my parents’ basement.
Cheesy Fingers wasn’t much of a song — basically just D and G, based on a dead simple Manchester-meets-Krautrock bass run. But I was in at least two bands that played it live: Saucy Jack and Sock Caucus.
Are either of those band names better than Area Resident? That’s what I’ve been calling myself since 2005, when I finally returned to home recording and trying to be a songwriter. I basically took my craft to the woodshed for a decade, slowly learning how to write songs and record them. At first I used a Fostex digital eight-track and finally graduated to Garageband and Logic. By 2016 I had recorded upwards of 100 songs and started to feel confident enough with the music I was making to seek the next step: Getting proper musicians involved — a producer, mixer and someone to tell me what’s good and what’s shit. What I should do again and what I should scrap.
Two trusted friends, who are both excellent songwriters and musicians, encouraged me to make an album. Those people are Ottawa’s Jim Bryson and Pembroke’s Jordon Zadorozny, whom I’ve been friends with since I was five years old. Jordon and I devised a scheme where I would send him the individual tracks from my songs, along with a note of what I’d like him to add — guitar, keys, vocals, drums. We speak the same language, so when I asked for “Custard Pie guitar” or “Lowell George is my neighbour” or “Phil Collins on Intruder,” he knew exactly what I wanted. And could do it. He’s clever that way. Jordon, of course, has been the guy behind Blinker The Star since the early 1990s. It’s a band I always wished I could have been a part of. Jordon and I certainly made lots of music together, but I never had the chops to be on any of his real stuff. So this Area Resident endeavour was really important to me. I’d waited 25 years to do it.
With the release of Orgone on Aug. 9, we’ve done nine albums together this way. I approach songwriting from an ADHD place and do it the same way every time, never writing the song before I record it. I start with a hook and start building around it to see if it’s the verse, the bridge, the chorus, the outro or the intro. Sometimes, the part I started with gets cut in the end. Melody and lyrics are the last thing I do.
This seems a bit of an odd way to do it, but it works for me and means I can never work in a proper studio. It would be rather expensive to show up with nothing written and be on the clock. Stressful, too. Not only because there’s the pressure of having to come up with something, but also being exposed like that. My songs are a lot like hot dogs. Even if you love them, you probably shouldn’t see how they’re made. I haven’t got the confidence to do what I do in front of studio types. Makes me feel like a fraud. This is why, since 2016, I’ve often described Area Resident as sounding “better than it has a right to.” And if that’s so, then I can tell you Orgone is my best-sounding album.
I’m really proud of it, and delighted to have an opportunity to go through it track-by-track.
A Different Kind of Fist
The album opener (Jordon always picks the sequence) is kind of based on a vocal melody by Guided By Voices — Ghosts Of A Different Dream. I simply couldn’t get it out of my head, so I just ripped it off. The line in the original is “a different kind of kiss.” But my song is about abusive men who don’t believe they actually are abusive men because that’s not how they’ve ever seen themselves. Jordon plays guitar and drums. Catriona Sturton does backing vocals.
Ferries (Wear Boots)
This one clearly is a nod to Black Sabbath, but in no way apart from the title. The ferries I’m referring to here are of the boat variety. This song is based on a short news story I wrote years ago about these two guys who got loaded at a bar in Quyon, Quebec, then made themselves at home in someone else’s home. They raided the beer fridge, shit in the pool and passed out. Jordon plays drums and guitar while Miguel Plante (dad sports) does the backing vocals.
They Don’t Know They’re Dead
I’ve been a journalist since 1994, with many of those years spent in broadcasting. It’s a very difficult industry to be in these days; layoffs are commonplace. I’ve been caught up in one and witnessed several. Sometimes broadcasters get a little maudlin after being laid off because the little thrill they get from being on-air is suddenly taken away. We’re human, and we let things go to our heads sometimes. We confuse having a higher profile with having a higher status. This isn’t something that only happens to broadcasters, of course. I’ve seen it with politicians, athletes and even mascots. They lose their job and still carry on online as though they haven’t — as if they were the focus of people’s attention and not their role. Like the ghosts in The Sixth Sense, they don’t know they’re dead. Jordon on drums and guitar again.
Operation Cue
I was listening to lots of stuff by the U.K. group Public Service Broadcasting and initially tried to do an instrumental song with “found dialogue” in place of lyrics. I constructed this, using royalty-free material from a 1955 educational film called Operation Cue, about a U.S. government project of the same name. Operation Cue tested the stability of suburban homes and infrastructure in a nuclear blast. But it sounded stupid and contrived, so I cut 90% of the dialogue out and came up with a melody and lyrics instead. For inspiration, I drew on the familiar Atomic Energy of Canada facility in Chalk River. Jordon plays drums and guitar while Stella Panacci adds vocals.
That’s Where You’re Wrong
I bet there are some MAGA / Conservative people in your family or extended family. There are some in mine, and my day job is with the public broadcaster, so it can get awkward. That’s what this song is about. Like, no, there is no “agenda.” Jordon on drums and guitar. Catriona on harmonica.
Orgone War
The pseudo-title track was inspired by listening to a podcast called The Opportunist. Specifically, an episode about a cult leader and her “orgone warriors.” Orgone energy is sometimes thought of as chi or life energy. In the 1930s and 40s, Wilhelm Reich tried to develop a device to harness this energy — it was basically a box you sat in. But people like that cult leader started creating their own “orgonite pucks” by putting resin, metal filings, copper wires and quartz crystals into muffin trays. Once the stuff solidified, it could be plucked out and supposedly used to ward off demons, clones, aliens while also having the handy effect of “clearing your chakras, lowering unwanted frequencies and magnetism and enhancing positive frequencies.” We have one at home, next to a Lemmy action figure and a slew of hillbilly cookbooks. Jordon plays drums and guitar while Catriona does backing vocals.
What We Found Anyway
This is a love song for my sweetie Chelle, who did the album artwork. (Which, incidentally, is done in a palette of colours I can see. I have protanopia colour blindness. So this album cover is something that people with perfect colour acuity see exactly the same way as I do.) Chelle and I got together nearly four years ago, both from previous marriages. There are lots of things we left behind, but far more things which we’ve found. Jordon plays drums. Stella provides vocals.
Twice Upon A Star
This one is about the horrid role models you’ll find on “reality” shows like Temptation Island, The Bachelor, etc. Jordon on drums. Miguel on Moog.
“It’s not entertainment
It’s spoon-fed to the dumb
Vacuous replacements of the goals to have
When you have none.”
These Five Faces I Have Seen
This track gets its name from a fake “album” Jordon and I drew when we were in middle school — one of a great many centred around the complex, imaginary rock-star double life we dreamed our science teacher led. RIP Jerry Arseneau, this one’s for you. There’s no way you’d ever have guessed the imaginations you inspired. Jordon on drums and guitar.
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Area Resident is an Ottawa-based journalist, recording artist, music collector and re-seller. Hear (and buy) his music on Bandcamp, email him HERE, follow him on Instagram and check him out on Discogs.
