The third track on Make It Worse, "Easy to Talk To," might be my favorite song on the record, mostly because of how far it came before we were finished with it. It started with bassist Sean Harmann and (then drummer) Jason Kreuger messing around with a riff at practice on night in late 2005; Sean's driving, rolling bass groove got stuck in my head. We started to work on pulling that into a song, but the band split up in December. January of 06 found me starting to work on a solo project, and I brought that bass riff and general song structure back and started working on lyrics and arrangement.

Drummer Tony Kirchner laid down a foundation that synched up nicely with Sean's bass part, and guitarists Pat Kirchner and Sam Gorgone did an awesome job of keeping the guitar parts nice and sparse during the verse. Our friend Mark Tomeo, who played pedal steel, dobro and electric 12 string on the record, had written a 12 string electric part for this song from the first second he heard it, and he nailed it. Bright and jangly, his arpeggio riffs add a subtle spaciness that works really well when woven together with the rest of the parts, especially in the bridge. Another friend, Kenny Geist, came in a laid down the solo, really catching the dynamic shift coming out of the bridge. To finish it off, Pat wrote the vocal harmonies to help flush out the choruses.

As happy as I am with the recorded version, this song has come into its own in the live setting. Pat has taken over the solo duties, and Sam has added a third part to the harmonies. It's become a staple of the Slimfit live show, a regular old foot-stomper.