03. THE CONSTANT

Click For Lyrics  |  Download Demo 1  |  Download Demo 2

This song arguably underwent the most change stylistically from it's initial demo which was more of a acoustic-roots rock style to the final full band version. As part of the trilogy alongside the more down tempo "New Home Life" and the darker "Ghosts", this song was reworked to just be a straight forward driving rock song and was heavily influenced by bands like Shiner and Jawbox, especially in the rhythm section.

Dustin rocked out the looping banjo part that helps kick off the song when I couldn't seem to get it right. I don't know what it was about it... it was only 4 notes. But apparently the banjo is a much trickier instrument than I anticipated. It was a fight to get that in... some people were firmly against the banjo. But it made it, and I think the song is better with it.

The small electronic loop featured in the beginning and middle sections was actually assembled in ProTools using sounds we got from recording my little LG cell phone button tones.

To achieve the sound of the main guitar riff in the chorus, we took a regular guitar and tuned it down a whole octave to get that thick, growly sound. It probably would've been easier to get a baritone guitar, but we unfortunately didn't have access to one. There's also a squealy guitar solo buried in the middle of the breakdown section that was recorded through GarageBand in Joelly's living room using a small JBL home iPod dock as an amp. The bass tone on this song was affectionately dubbed "the burning alligator".

The train noises at the end are the Milwaukee Amtrak, which runs right outside the window of the apartment Jeffro was living at during most of the recording process.



DEMO 1 - Recorded by The Culpa live at practice into GarageBand.

DEMO 2 - Recorded by Marky rather drunkenly into GarageBand.