CLASSIC CORNER:COVER
BACKTRACK
STORY
“The whole song is played on
false harmonics except for the
main melody.”
Let’s talk about “Where Were You”
(originally titled “Chipping Norton”)
from Guitar Shop. I both loved and
hated that you didn’t give me
the ending.
Give me five because there was no way
we were going to put an ending on it. We
wanted to leave people with a lump in the
back of the throat that didn’t go away. We
also couldn’t come up with anything. Tony
(Hymas) is such a dry bastard. He said
we are not having an ending. That is the
ending. He threatened me with violence if
I finished it off.
Did you intentionally want to sound
like a voice?
Yeah I did. I got that germ from this folk
record. I heard this strange
Folk music with incredible voices on it.
They had a way of breaking the voice
and cascading notes without a break. I
thought, I can do that on guitar. I heard
it about four times and that was enough.
I started picking out a few lines and I
didn’t want to hear anymore. I took just
the first impression of this song. Terry was
saying, ‘’I’m getting misty eyed listening
to that.’’ I went, “Good, you’re supposed
to.” Then I dove down into the soul of my
boots and tried to come up with some
lines that continued from that. I just
OCT/NOV
played these little sections for about three
hours. We’d press the record button and
go listen. Then we took all the meaty bits
and welded them together. Tony came up
with these devastating, wonderful chords
behind it.
What about making it sound like
a voice?
The whole song is played on false
harmonics except for the main melody.
The place where I played the harmonic,
when you bend the arm you get this voice
sound. I used a 59’ Strat with a long
repeat echo. There’s no synthesized tricks
on it. I wanted a dramatic atmospheric
thing with no rumbling bass, no drums to
get in the way, just this soaring singing
around the auditorium. I didn’t want
people to say, “Fucking hell listen to that.”
I wanted that of course, but I wanted
them to listen to the melody. We were
trying to get two minutes of the most
glorious guitar playing we could get,
which was in me all the way, just saying
something, as long as it reaches somebody
somewhere. It’s ethereal and cloudlike.
That’s me inside. Ralph, my manager, said,
‘’Tony sounds great on that.’’ We had a mix
of it where the guitar was so over the top
it sounded like a compressed synthesizer.
I was so destroyed because he thought
it was a keyboard. It’s one continuous
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