Behind the Scenes #3 - Images Of Bliss

IMAGES OF BLISS

It’s no secret that ‘Battletech’ was frontloaded, which led to a few internal debates over whether to put the best ’songs’ at the beginning of the album, or go with what felt natural, soundwise; I aimed for a balance, which resulted in the first four songs sounding pretty much nothing like each other.

So after the electro-psychedelic ‘The Purpose Of Man’ and new wave/industrial ‘Anti-Human Nous’, there’s ‘Images Of Bliss’ - which has survived its eight-year genesis surprisingly intact.

I wrote the song in 2001, in true John Lennon spirit - my sister had delivered me her latest artistic masterpiece, and being seven years old at the time (her - not I, obviously), it was of some people, a house, the sky, etc etc. Not to discount her effort, but you know what kids paint/draw at that age.

It got me thinking - kids, when they’re not brought up in wartorn societies or being sung about by U2, almost always draw happy scenes. Yet, if you’re old enough to vote, drawing a guy with a near-perfect sphere for a head with a shit-eating grin is near enough to land you in the loony bin. Why?

And that’s pretty much the story behind the opening line - “Have you noticed how little children draw images of bliss, and talented artists don’t? Says a lot about growing up these days.”

In late 2001, I was a part time dole bludger living in the ground-floor room of three-storey apartment owned by a [as far as I could tell] rich American guy who used to be in a hardcore punk band, and then worked in 3D TV screens which had some connection to the US military, and his girlfriend who was a fellow Kiwi I met whilst doing the night-shift at a semi-student radio station.

The best part of this odd-sounding arrangement was that my room was seperated from their room by an entire empty floor, and I had pretty much all the time in the world to just crank my 25W amp and learn how to rip off Weezer and the Dandy Warhols. It was a fertile period, split down the middle by 9/11, which had a marked effect on my writing - as in I went from writing songs about crayon drawings by children and pretending to be attacked by vampires (I’m not sure that song will ever see release…) to tackling, you know, issues. as clumsily as any half-a-world-removed 21-year-old does.

The initial demo contained perhaps 80% of the final recording’s DNA, obviously minus the eight years learned production experience. Over the next few years, it was demoed again and again, and played live in bands I had going, yet barely changed. I have to mention the repeated drum fill added by - I can’t remember if it was Simon or Nat - but it was sub-Ringo in its simplicity, yet just fit so well I kept it for the recorded version. I owe whichever of you it was a beer, or something.

And being one of the songs that had been repeatedly played live beforehand, I have to thank the other guys in the band - it’s probably too far removed to remember exactly what contributions to its arrangement they made, but Tonamu and Gareth - and Nathan, as late as you came on the scene - if you can hear any of your influences/suggestions in the arrangement, thanks. The song hasn’t made any of us millionaires - or even ten-a-naires - but it was all good fun.

LINK: DOWNLOAD ‘IMAGES OF BLISS”

Mirrored from Radio Over Moscow.