You're listening to Song Exploder, where musicians take apart their songs and piece by piece, tell the story of how they were made. I'm Rishikesh Hirway. In the episode, singer Chino Moreno breaks down how that song came together and how they literally went back to where things started in order to create the music. Here's Chino Moreno on how Ohms got started. My name is Chino Moreno. The first time I heard anything of it was an email that I received from Stefan Carpenter who plays guitar.
He sent this demo and I remember I was traveling and I was on my way to Yellowstone National Park. I remember my wife was getting mad at me because I don't have unlimited data. So I was downloading stuff like using my cellular network. Why are you downloading Stefan? We're going to run out of data. But I'd already got two thirds of the way through so I just continued on.
This was probably three or so years ago out of the blue. He rarely sends me demos because a lot of our music is really written like all of us in the same room. But I know when he sends me something that he feels strongly enough about it to send it to me. So when he does do that, I'm already excited about the bet. Just a guitar riff ideas are there. There's like this longing, desperate sort of undertone in there. This sort of desperate feeling.
I think it's like close to seven minutes on a member but it's pretty lengthy and like a lot of the parts were super extended. So my first initial idea was to chop it down and kind of just make it more concise. So I was in the passenger seat and I just started chopping it up on the road while we were driving through Idaho or something like that. So I just kind of trimmed it down a little bit and then I sent it back to him and the rest of the guys in the band.
And it wasn't until a couple of years later until we actually started our first riding sessions. I pulled it out and said, hey, you guys remember this thing? When we went in to go do the initial riding for this record, we decided to go back to our studio that we have in Sacramento, California, which we've had since the mid 90s.
We call it the spot. It was kind of like a clubhouse. Like literally when we first started hanging out there, we built like a half pipe in there and we just like used it to place a skate and like we used to play this board game called risk. We would have these like hour long games and just sit back and you know drink and smoke and you know that was just as big as part of us as making music. So over the years we'd slowly sort of morph it into like an actual recording studio.
But we hadn't been to that studio for 10 years. Ever since 2008, I believe that was when our bass player Chi, he was in a car accident and we took a break from that point on like we actually just took a break from the band for a good six months I would say. The car accident left Chi in a coma. He passed away in April 2013. I think one of the main reasons why we hadn't been back there for so long was because it was sort of a difficult thing to be back there in the same place.
You know it was crazy because like you look into the corner where Chi all the stuff was set up like all the same with like all his stuff like there's almost like a time capsule in a way it was kind of a trip. So there are some sort of like uneasy feelings but at the same time there are some great memories that we have there. So we cleaned it all out. We like got some new gear, new carpet, new everything.
And then all of a sudden it was almost like okay it's the same place but it has like this new sort of revitalized kind of feel to it. And obviously left a couple of cheese things in there to just save us place in there. But it definitely was a good feeling to be back there and to be the same guy as that wrote multiple records in that place and to be there at all of us in our mid to late 40s. And we've been going there since we were kids man so it was pretty crazy.
But it's definitely like a cool feeling to have that nostalgia that we created and to sort of resurrect that too with this record. This recording is probably one of the first things that we started jamming on and at that point we started working on it from scratch with everybody sort of learning the parts and joining in you know in their own way. The recording is kind of funny because we're sitting there learning it and it's pretty terrible and I was sort of reluctant to send it.
But I think it's awesome because it just shows it like how these things happen really with us five in the same room at the same time. That energy is pretty important. It's really about us just trying to not to come in with preconceived ideas and really just like building off the reaction that we all have to one another in the room at that point in time. The very first time that I approached it vocally was when we were in the room together.
And it's really bad like the words aren't really there you can tell you tell but you know the same cadence and the same melodies that ended up being on the record are like heavily hinted in there. The way we work is very much just like one person makes a sound and then the next person reacts to that sound. And it's always long. It's always held along. I knew I already have to bet that it was way too long and I knew that we were going to cut it down more.
And since I'm going to be the one that has to kind of like sing over it and figure out where and how my vocals are going to fit into it, I feel like I have a strong idea of where it needs to go. At that point the style of the guitar playing itself was kind of less riffy and kind of had more like more of the halftime feel. But I was like this song needs to start off more spastic. It needs to be more spastic when it comes out.
I always felt like the end of the song was kind of the most exciting part of the song that riff that it kind of goes out on. And I was like what if it just starts off with that part. So now the song starts with the ending of the song. It's kind of like bookend by that rolling guitar riff. So it starts off a little bit more frantic and then all of a sudden it drops into that more mellow thing. But then when A comes in with the drums on the downbeat.
It sinks into place and like subments the song into this sort of feeling. So we have Terry come out. Terry date is an awesome producer from Seattle, Washington that did some of our biggest records. So when we went into make of this new record we were like one main thing was we need to feel comfortable. And having Terry there we already know he allows us to just be us. Terry was the first thing that he said was like hey if we do this we're going to do it live.
You know like I don't want you guys to play restraint. I want you guys just to clap each other and that's what we did. We decided that we were not going to record to a click. A click is a metronome track that plays while you're recording to make sure the tempo of the song stays consistent. Our last two records we started using a tempo map. Not that it's a bad thing but A is saying they're playing his drums listening to a click in his headphones.
And I saw so many times him not having fun doing that like literally just like I can tell he was just unhappy doing that. And when we got rid of the click track and we all went in there and tracks up together and basically A is the clock now. Everything just falls right into place like so much better. A have had a couple different beat ideas in the pre-chorus but I was like this one is perfect.
This kind of half time studded beat reminded me of like Jane's addiction style and sort of very washed out kind of you know maybe shoe gazing even. It feels like you're falling. That's Sergio Vega bass. He's kind of a big melodic part in the verses. I mean he's sort of like dancing. And he goes up on the neck a lot you know.
He has a little bit of grit still in his bass tone you know when he does those melodies he's still holding down the low end but there's that melody that's weaving in and out of it. With this record we wanted Frank Delgado who plays synthesizer to be more prominent and he'd purchased this profit and he basically uses that synth through pretty much the whole record.
You know this sounds and we're so warm and they're kind of old school you know it's like more vintage sounding and less you know like processed. I think it's always the challenge to marry that organic guitar stuff with the synth stuff but I feel like we've been trying to sneak them into the tunes for quite some time and with this song and particularly though. He's sort of toying with the same sort of melody that Sergio's in there.
They're both in there sort of weaving up and down with those notes and it sounds rad. I mean I love that. There's this like little sheer sound of the intro of the song where it sounds like maybe like a fighter plane is going by or something like that. We were just like tweaking pedals through his synthesizer. We grabbed a little snippet of it and then we put that at the beginning too and then it went right into that guitar riff and it just like launched you into the song.
We're surrounded by debris of the past. I love to hear the grit on my voice which is maybe years of abuse or whatever that's there it kind of sounds aged I guess in a way.
At a studio to cause a change in the time I always have overdrive to sort of even give a little bit more course feel to it but then so I take that and then I'll coat that usually with a little bit of slap back delay a little bit of the washingness of it to kind of smooth it out and when I get that right balance to me it's really comfortable to sing. So we slip into a bus see a regret.
You know in the beginning at the time I still didn't really know what the song was about but I knew there was a sense of desperation.
The very first line of the song says that we're surrounded by debris of the past and the next line is it's too late to cause a change in the tides and that's phrases that just came to me like I wasn't trying to write about the environment per se or the state of the planet but that was the first thing I popped in my head is like yeah this is like a mission statement like where we are today with the planet.
Music has always sort of been an escape from like reality for me so I've never sort of taken any like a political environmental stance with any of our music I don't feel the passion to use this thing that happens between five people as like my soap box you know I'm saying so I feel like I've kind of copped out of like actually like you know speaking my voice but at the same time if I am going to do it I think I want to do it in a more artistic way you know I don't abandon the music.
I'm not just a theme but I kind of make it more open ended so just not allowing it to just be like this linear idea with the next line the next line sort of it could be okay maybe talking about a relationship as we slip on through we promise to me again.
I always think of the chorus should go somewhere whether it dives down or it's uplifting. Lyrically I feel like the song already has this sort of like doomsday kind of acceptance of like you know everything is sort of caving in on itself and then the chorus lyrics are uplifting.
Time won't change this promise we made basically just saying like you know we're locked arms like together while like the media is coming us and no matter what even beyond this planet we will remain like our bond and like this promise to just like have each other's back. I can be decided to make this the last song on the hub. I felt like this song was kind of a closing statement in a way kind of leaves you with this optimistic feeling.
That dichotomy I think of the song having this like desolate vibe and then morphing into that uplifting thing and that's kind of a challenge. So to end the record on that vibe I felt good about it. Now we're just looking towards the future. And now here's Ohms by death tones in its entirety. We're surrounded by debris of the past. At the student lane to come for change in the dance.
And. For a time And time will change this This promise may end And time will change this This is how it'll stay This is our time We devoured the days ahead We could process By this change it does As we slip on through We promise to meet again And step away through The heart remains in our minds Right through Where we shall remain for a time And time will change this This promise may end And time will change this We shall remain For more, visit songexploder.net, slash, DevTones.
You'll find links to buy or stream homes And you can watch the music video for it. For more, visit songexploder.net, slash, DevTones. You'll find links to buy or stream homes And you can watch the music video for it. And you can watch the music video for it. Song Exploder is made by me, Rishikesh Herway, with producer Christian Kunz and production assistant Olivia Wood. Illustrator Carlos Lerma makes original artwork for every episode And Kathleen Smith handles music clearance.
Song Exploder is a proud member of Radio Topia, from PRX, a collective of creative independent podcasts. You can get a song exploder t-shirt at songexploder.net slash shirt. You can also follow the show on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at songexploder. My name is Rishikesh Herway. Thanks for listening. Radio Topia, from PRX.