Singled Out: The Shadow Theory / Psychotic Waltz

"I Remember" by Psychotic Waltz - I chose to write about this song because it really sticks in my mind how it came about. When I was 17 years old, I sang in a garage cover band called FaultLine. We played current hits of the day and classic rock. I wasn't particularly into the band, but I was talked into singing in a "why not?" sort of mentality. In our time together we also wrote two or three originals. One of which was called "A Social Grace". It sounded kinda like Iron Maiden actually. It was in a fast 4/4 tempo and the vocal melody was sung up very high. I was not particularly thrilled with the song for some reason. Then one day I was just walking home and I began to think about that melody. In my mind, I transposed the melody down an octave and imagined singing it over a Jethro-Tull-ish acoustic arrangement in a � swing time. I could clearly hear a new chord change under the melody and I kept singing it in my mind over and over until I got home. I immediately took my acoustic guitar and raked out the new chord structure almost instinctively. My hands just went to the exact right chords, even one chord which to this day I still don't know what it is, but my hand just went right to it and it sounded just as it did in my mind. It came out of me just like magic, with virtually no effort on my part. The old lyrics no longer fit to the sound so I immediately wrote new lyrics on the spot.

"I remember a story of great battles won
And the tales of our heroes who died by the gun
While the rest looked and smiled at the freedom they've won
But the weight of the chains slows the run�"

I finished that song in one sitting. This is the first song I ever wrote in my imagination. That is to say that the song wrote itself and played in my head like a radio. I didn't really write it, I learned it I guess you could say. It wrote itself.

Another interesting part of that songs development came a few years later when I brought that song into Psychotic Waltz. I was living at Wards house at the time, sleeping on his couch. I had a dream one night that I had a little 45rpm single of "I Remember" and I played it on a record player (anyone know what that is?). The strange thing about it was during the last verse, there were these harmonies (or counter melodies rather) being sung, which I had not written for the song, but they were there on the record. I thought it sounded beautiful. So when we recorded the song in the studio, I added these harmonies on the last verse which I heard in the dream. The funny thing about it is, we actually pressed a 45rpm single of "Only In a Dream" to promote the first Psychotic Waltz album A Social Grace. The B side is "I Remember". When I played the "I Remember" side of the record, and when it got to the last verse and I heard those harmonies it brought tears to my eyes. I realized that I dreamed this exact moment and that dream had helped create what I was listening to. It could be perhaps the reason this song is so special to many Psychotic Waltz fans can be attributed to the magic by which it was created. As if it somehow was born under its own will. As I write this so many years later, I notice for the first time the significance of the title on the A side of the record. Haunting.