derek chafin music and lyrics

CREDITS AND MAKING OF:

Produced and Engineered by
Steve Durkee and Derek
Mixed by Steve Durkee
Recorded at the Barn Studio, Media, PA
Mixed at 316 Burbank, CA and the Barn Studio
Mastered by Peter Humphreys at Masterworks, Philadelphia PA
CD design by Derek, Joey McLaughlin and Jerry Steinbrink
Photography by Joey McLaughlin

Music by
Derek (except Straight On, Forever and Sweet That Runs Through by Derek and Dave)
Lyrics by Derek
All songs arranged by Superstatic
Management: KW Management

Derek Chafin: vocal, guitar, mellotron, bass, drums, programming and various other noises.
David Lenat: guitar
Tim Reeder: drums
Kevin Jacoby: bass
Additional Musicians:
Chad Gustafson: B3, Piano, Rhoads
Kenny Markford: bass on Give You Love
Steve Durkee: piano on Oh Mary and additional programming throughout.

Thanks to:
Peggy and Don DeSantis, Steve Durkee, Joey McLaughlin, Dave Potts, Jerry Steinbrink and Liz Smutko, Shane, Jon Cooper, Kenny Markford, Chad Gustafson, Fred Goldwater, Nancy and Ethan, Peter Humphreys, Dan Cohen, Brian McLaughlin, Karolyn and Bob Jordan, Nuria, Bonnie Harper, Jay and Diane French, Tom McCaffrey, Cyndy Drue, Keirsten Watson, Andrew and Elivi, Rodney, John and Mia,

Echoplexed was begun almost as soon as Flinty Loam was complete. In fact, tracks were being laid down before Flinty's album release party. Intended to be a Superstatic record, it became, in reality, my first solo record. The Gladhouse was released firs although it was started after Echoplexed was completed.

11 songs, from ethereal to the pounding and stretching all modern technologies and bi coastal express mail services.

Powerful and dramatic. I wanted to combine ethereal with power. I was listening to some live Zep and some Ali Kahn and was struck by the time they took to let the song unfold. Not just a self indulgent jam but a journey. I love tight powerful pop songs so somehow I tried to make the two fit together. I wanted it to be dramatic in the sense that it has light against dark, movement and depth. This was a deeply personal record in more ways than I've known before. Revealing; sometimes intentional and at others times I was forced kicking and screaming into it by the music. It was about growth and possibility. I wanted to grow as a writer - kinda of a trite thing to say but I mean it in that I wanted to be more clear in my lyrics and fess up to what is in my heart musically. The possibility is to stretch that further and further. Stagnation is death. You find out what you are every day - your core may stay true but that meaning will expand as you explore and open your eyes. I love power, groove, teetering on out of control, raw emotion and at the same time I love intimacy, beauty, hooks, and new sounds. There are many themes but one main theme, kinda heavy, but it seems to boil down to this: hope in the face of hopelessness. It's about grit and majesty.

"This record was vastly different to make than Flinty Loam. It was really a record that incorporated all the technology available to us. I started making the record by having very loose song structures, just the emotion of 4 guys in a room playing their asses off. We hadn't rehearsed the songs much before, sometimes as you rehearse a song the more precise it becomes but looses it's energy and edge. I wanted it raw on tape, even if we didn't quite know what we were doing or what the song would finally become. Not a jam, but certainly looser than we'd been before in the studio. We counted on our tightness as a band and knowing each other so well as musicians almost in a way of showing that off. We were on no schedule. I had the time to focus and at the same time explore with a very indulgent band at my side.

One strange difference was Steve Durkee was never in the room with us. Steve Durkee, long time engineer for "The Artist" and producer of Superstatic's last record "Flinty Loam". Steve's had an incredibly busy schedule and we simply didn't want to finish the record without him. So we waited for brief rests in Steve's schedule from mixing many, many acts - including work with the Backstreet Boys, Buckcherry, Rage Against the Machine, and Paul McCartney - just to name a few. We used the technology at hand. I would send rough mixes to him in LA and he would make suggestions. When the songs were more complete I sent the master tapes to him and he began editing the best takes together and adding the extra's.

To say it was written or recorded in a haphazard way would be the opposite of the truth. We used the studio like an instrument. With the emerging technology you are no longer limited to what you record on tape in one take. You incorporate the studio into the songwriting process just like it's a guitar or instrument. We could play with new bridge ideas until I wrote one that was exactly what I wanted to express while not loosing the power of the band or interest in the song.

Sketches became picture and the view sharpened as we went along - sometimes revealing itself to us rather than us forcing it. Demos turned into songs - all still with the raw power intact.

The downside was to make all of this work the studio had to push the boundaries of what was available or sonically acceptable. It took a while to get it there and much tech hell was spent but eventually we worked out a way to make the record work with it's bi coastal production. A couple of years to make and every second at full throttle. Our close friends would say "you're still making that record", as if it should have been finished ages ago and implying we're slackers. I'd assure them we were working hard, nothing was wrong, and to shut up because they were going to like it.

I sent Steve the masters and Steve would assemble and rough mix the songs as I completed tracking newer ones. Eventually Steve and I got together and putting the finishing touches on the mixes together in LA.

This is what I wanted to do: make a record which had great songs, powerful feel, it's own distinct vibe. I wanted to say fuck you to the flavor of the day. To write a great pop song is a noble thing and to attempt to push the genre ahead is what it's all about. To try, whether I succeeded or not, to make a classic record. Fuck it, why do it if you don't have that ambition? To reflect it's time and transcend it. Here goes.

CREDITS AND MAKING OF:

Recorded on location in Osprelia, VA and at the Barn Studio, Media, PA
Mixed at the Barn Studio
Produced, Mixed and Engineered by Steve Durkee
Mastered by Peter Humphreys at Masterworks, Philadelphia PA
CD design by Jerry Steinbrink, Joey McLaughlin and Derek
Photography by Joey McLaughlin
Assistant Engineer: Jay French

Music by
Derek (except Lift by Derek and Dave)
Lyrics by
Derek
All songs arranged by Superstatic
Management: Jerry Steinbrink at Pressure Point Entertainment
Derek Chafin: vocal, guitar
David Lenat: guitar and more guitar
Tim Reeder: drums, percussion, pasta, backing vocals
Chad Gustafson: B3, Piano, Mellotron, Rhoads and other noises
Kevin Jacoby: bass, cello
Additional Musicians:
Miss Karolyn: backing vocals
Kenny Markford: bass
"May I"- Rob Rizzo-Sitar, Dale Armour-Tabla

Thanks to:
The Neighbors in Ospralia, Jeremy Burnbaum, Chris Gately, Peter Humphreys, Joe DeLuca, Mark Suma, Carl Angstadt, Dan Cohen, Jay Friel, Bruce Warren, Bob Marshall, Rob Rizzo, Dale Armour, Brian McLaughlin, Tom Becker, Chris Collins, Don and Karen Giles, Judy and Joe and Co., Bruce Hemphill, Bob Jordan at Alesis, Lou Maresco at Fern, Cyndy Drue, Mark Teboe, Keirsten, everyone at the Pontiac and the Local.

Without who's love and support it would not have been possible:
Peggy and Don DeSantis, Joey McLaughlin, Jerry Steinbrink and Liz Smutko, Fred Goldwater, Nancy, Ethan and Steve Durkee, Miss Karolyn, Kenny Markford, Jay French, Diane Dercole, Tom McCaffrey, Dave Potts, Andrew Ervin, Jon Cooper, Joe Augustine, Jesse, Dale and Richard, Pam Welch, Stu and Sue, Steve, John and Rick, Bill Renner, and all our loyal fans - love you too.

For Dale and Leslie Bluebond

750 acres of marshland, forest, and beach with an amazing house at the edge of the waters of the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia. Completely in the middle of nowhere - 30 miles from even the smallest of towns. Isolated, indescribably beautiful, inspiring and magical.

David: "We talked about some of our favorite records and the large majority had one thing in common - they were not recorded in a studio. They were recorded in a house. The Stones, Led Zeppelin, U2, Chili Peppers, (you could count the Beatles because Abbey Road must have felt like home by the White Album)".

Derek: "This record was about exploration... of our minds and our our abilities". We wanted this real trippy vibe where anything could happen, but we also wanted it to be very aggressive. We wanted the listener to say "I didn't expect that, but it's cool". There is this dichotomy that runs through the record. There was a conscious attempt to make a record that could endure - why make one if it can't stand a test of time. At the same time we wanted to just let go, have faith in our ability as a band, and just please ourselves.

Tim: "There was no stop watch on creativity. If someone had an idea at 5 am, we would just get up and press record - which happened quite a few times. Just a relaxed, creative environment where we could focus, experiment and make music".

The Name - Flinty Loam? Derek explains, " Our manager's lovely and supportive (it's an inside joke) wife, Liz deemed where the bay meets the beach - the flinty loam. It cracked us up, but we also love the sound of it.

With planning approaching a military operation, they turned a beach house into a 24 track digital recording studio. A cargo van was packed till even a wafer thin mint couldn't fit into it and then headed to Virginia. The van transported all of the band's instruments and amps etc., all the studio gear - some of which the band had and the rest borrowed from friends, food, and supplies to repair anything that broke. Since they were in such a remote place, getting spare parts was not a possibility.

Derek: "Dave and I drove the van down late at night. The van poured exhaust fumes into the cabin and within 2 minutes from leaving we were stopped by the police. Not for the fumes, but because the van looked like it went through a war. It might as well have had a sign on it that said "Out Doin' Crimes". An interesting 5 hour drive listening to Lenny Bruce and feeling like Cheech and Chong. Just to keep us alert and from drifting into a carbon monoxide induced coma the van's headlights would go off periodically. We unloaded that night, set the place up the next day and the day after Steve and the rest of the band arrived".

The Master bedroom was transformed into the studio control room. Chosen because it was the furthest place from the drums and was big enough to hold all the recording equipment and a B3. The console looked out onto the Chesapeake. In back, five feet away, was Steve's bed. Halfway down the hall the laundry room held the keyboard's Leslie cabinet, 20 ft. further was the living room, which served as the drum room. It was 20 X 30 with a 20 ft. cathedral ceiling, tile floor, view of the bay on one side and the marsh on the other. Adjacent to the living room and separated by a glass door was the family room - a large carpeted room with an equally beautiful view and a small kitchen to the side. The family room was used for recording the guitars. Down the hall from the family room was two bedrooms. The closest of the last bedroom contained the bass rig. During the course of the recording every room in the house was used for something. There was a lot in the band's favor: the owners where kind enough to offer this place to them which was not only beautiful, but also happens to have amazing acoustics, and the session fit into Steve Durkee's schedule.

Steve Durkee had been the main engineer on the last five Prince albums and also worked with such notables as Sting, Stevie Wonder, Paul Westerburg, and George Clinton, just to name a few. The band had met Steve at Paisley Park while recording their first record.

Tim: "Durkee has an enthusiasm and passion for our music that's equal to ours and sometimes more. With Steve's credentials obviously he is a great engineer, but he never makes you aware of the tech geek side of recording. His approach was "it's gonna sound great sonically. You just go out there and hit things really hard, jerky". He is the perfect producer for us - he knows when and how to push and when to rope us in. A contagious sense of humor, very comfortable to be around and loves to experiment with sounds".

Derek: "Steve and I were listening back to a track a 4 am, everyone else was starting to crash for the night. We thought it would be cool to have a snare played with brushes under the track. We wake Tim up and start rummaging around the house because Tim didn't bring any brushes. At 5am Tim is cutting this snare part holding two fists full of uncooked pasta - subbing for brushes. A good meal and goes great on a snare".

"Spontineity was key" Derek adds."I had this riff idea. Tim and I got inspired and started working on it around 2 am. As people woke up or wandered in the track, No Love, was finished by 5 am".

Chad, who played keyboards on the record: "We always tried to record the songs as a full band rather than one instrument at a time then we'd go back in and overdub if we needed to. We were recording an acoustic track and to get the vocals isolated, Karolyn (who sang backing vocals on the record) was put in a bathroom to sing. She was in there for about 2 hours and I think she took a shower during".

Derek: "I always loved the double-tracked drums on a few Beatles tracks. We needed something for the end of Dark and we got our chance to "Ringo" it. Tim had two kits. We recorded the whole song as a band - drums and all. Then as that played we recorded Tim playing over it again, along with every member of the band,(each given a drum from Tim's second kit), seated around him bashing it out. The effect is something like marching drums on acid".

David: "Steve loves to run stuff through old guitar pedals and ancient gizmos. Chad and Steve disappeared into the control room for most of the night and when they finally emerged they had recorded the most intense sounds we'd heard - all perfect for the tunes and completely original".

By the last day Steve had spent it all and finally crashed. David recalls "Steve went to sleep with a studio around him and woke up in an empty house. We'd packed everything up and into the van for the return home while he slept. We didn't want to wake him so we videotaped our good-bye's. He woke up completely disoriented with a video tape of us saying good-bye on TV".

The band returned to their Barn studio and started overdubbing - guitars, vocals, sitar, shovels - you know the usual. There they recorded three more songs Headdress, Crazy and May I. In between the shows, writing lyrics and studio renovations the band took 3 months to finish all the tracks. It took another two months for Durkee to break free from Paisley in order to get back with the band at the Barn to start mixing the record. "The equipment in the Barn is pretty Spartan compared to most recording studios, but the conditions ultimately pushed us to be more creative and experimental - we defiantly improvised", Kevin explains. "Late at night we would sneak into a major league studio in town and listen to our mixes, go back and change anything we heard that was a little off". "Our schedule got so whacked by the end that we would start at 5 or 6 pm, mix straight until 1 pm the next day, go to sleep, get up and start again. Mole People. Of course Steve thought this was like being on a holiday schedule". Steve had to return to Paisley with the record 75% finished. Two months later he returned and finished mixing the remainder. Flinty Loam was finally ready.

CREDITS AND MAKING OF:

The Gladhouse
Produced and MIxed by Derek and Jon Cooper
Engineered by Derek
Assistant engineer Joanna Justice

Basic tracks recorded on location in a house in Ospriala, VA. Additional recording at the Barn Studio, Media PA
+Recorded at the Barn Studio
Mixed at the Barn Studio
Mastered by Peter Humphreys at Masterworks, Philadelphia PA
Strings recorded at Studio Strings, Madison WI

Photography by Joey McLaughlin and Alex Lowy

Music by
Derek (except Sweet by Derek and Dave Lenat)
Lyrics by Derek
String Arrangments by Jon Cooper (except Sweet by Derek and Chris Wagoner)

Derek Chafin: vocal, guitar, programming, bass and drums on "May Be Hours", cello on "Even Though"
Tim Reeder: drums
Chris Sidel: bass
Chris Wagoner - Violin and Viola
Mary Gaines - Cello
Doug Shaffer - Trumpet on "Huntington"
Larry Toft - Trombone on "Come With Me"
Jim Stager - Upright Bass on "Huntington"
David Lenat - Guitar sounds on "May Be Hours"
Ivan Stiles- String Tree on "Come With Me"
Joanna Justice - Piano on "Twist"

Jon Cooper and I met when we were twelve years old. When we were thirteen the very first day I got my gold top Les Paul he dropped it on the concrete floor when I took it to his basement to play. No harm though. A few years later he brought a girl he thought I should meet to my birthday party (a girl I ending up dating for years). A few years later he was the one I called to record my first songs, which we did in a little basement in Boston, where he was attending and not attending Berkeley School of Music. He was also the one I called to produce my very first record "Cellar Into Eaves" by the Darrows. To say he's always been there for me would be a vast understatement. It would kind of be like an offensive lineman saying the quarterback had always been there for him. When Jon comes into a project it's almost silently and from then on he brings game.

I was in the middle of making my solo record, I had just broken up my band (in a very mutually loving way) with it's last record still floating in space. So the only thing to do was start yet another record. Actually, while making the first solo record I realized that much of the material wasn't fitting in with the rest of the record. It was quiet and extremely intimate but I thought they were still good songs. I also thought I needed to start playing out again and needed a quick demo so I could hit the local coffee house circuit. Just me and a guitar - no fuss, no mess, and down to the bones of a song. Something in me was saying you need to record acoustically too. With this idea for a demo to get gigs in mind I arranged for a recording on location in VA. The same place I had recorded "Flinty Loam" with my band a few years before. It is a magical place. No other way to describe it. I wanted this incredibly loose feeling. I wanted it to be candle light and vibe. I convinced Tim Reeder of my former band to come and play drums. Tim and I had played for what seemed to be forever together and when I say we know each other musically I mean when one breathes the other exhales - we are just always locked in. Chris Sidel, who had also been in my band but only for a brief time before I put the burden down, was to play bass. Who would work the control room?? Who?? I called Jon.

Tim and I had recorded so much together, our first record, which we recorded at Prince's Paisley Park, to remote on location recording. It was always intense and fairly thought out. This was not what I wanted this time. I really only cared if I walked away with one good take on two songs. On purpose I didn't let anyone hear the material before we were recording. Literally. Some of what you hear on the record is the band hearing and playing the song for the first time. It was instinct. This is what I wanted. I'd been listening to Van Morrison's Astral Weeks and I wanted that same feeling - of being able to hear the musicians breathe, on the edge and responding emotionally to what they were hearing instead of thinking about what they were playing. I also knew I could count on these musicians to not sound floundering, wasteful, or jamy. I relied on the musicians that they are to interpret the material from the heart. No one worked out parts before hand and the material didn't feel stale by the time we recorded it. We were in the moment. I went down the day before to set everything up so there would have to be no draining, soul robbing sound check. Tim and Jon arrived the next night. The living room, a big cathedral ceiling, marble floors, windows all around, candles burning everywhere, was where the drums and bass were set up. I looked in from another room through a glass door into that room so Tim and I could see each other but have a little bit of sound isolation for the mics. Gear was set up and ready to go. He walked in and picked up his sticks and we were recording. "Don't Wait" and "Come With Me" were recorded that night. We felt a little drunk. Yes, we'd been drinking but that's not what I'm talking about. It was pretty heady and emotional stuff. It was kind of like what we'd always wanted recording to be and it was a present to each other for being such good friends and having traveled so long through the music industry together. It could have been a "Oh no, here we go again", but it was the opposite - it was the culmination, it was a little personal victory lap for us. Chris joined us the next afternoon. By the night of the next day it was over. A total of 24 hours in one place all together, then back to Philly. I wanted a tight schedule because I wanted it to have a definite end while being happy if we only captured one moment. It surpassed my expectations. Early in the morning, after Tim and Chris had gone to sleep Jon and I were listening back to the takes of the day. Jon said "You know this is a record don't you?" It was all of a sudden an extremely frightening thing for me. Oh, God, NOT ANOTHER ONE! I'm stretched thin and behind schedule on the one I was already making! But I also thought he was absolutely right. It was not the demo I'd planned. No, it was to be its own and fully realized and it was screaming that to both of us through the speakers. Jon had been quiet at first but by the end of the sessions he was a commander. A producer with a total vision beyond what we were hearing. He moved players subtly into different approaches without them ever feeling that he was telling them what to do or ruining the vibe. Somewhere along the way he became Fred Astare to our Ginger Rodgers. It was only at the end of the session that we realized how much Coop had been essential to those tracks. Quietly he entered.

Jon and I returned to Barn Studio where we edited together the best moments of each song from numerous takes into one take. I'd like to say, this was not the case for "Huntington" - it was one take and "Come With Me" and "Don't Wait" - each two takes. We fixed some vocals and then Jon began to write the sting arrangements. We were really concerned that what ever we put on the tracks would take away from what was already there so it was with much caution that we both proceeded. It took a painfully long time, constant and unending amounts of work, trial and error, rewrites but finally the day came when the scores were ready to send to the string players and book session time for the horn players.
The stings were played by a husband and wife team, friends of Jon's in Madison WI. Jon sent the charts and they would record and double their tracks building into what would normally be a 8 or 12 piece ensemble. Chris and Mary quickly became not just players but intrigal to the record. They were getting under the music's skin and both Jon and I loved them loving it.

So with all parts assembled and some parts left out, (many of which were played by the great Ivan Stiles and he's gonna kill me that I left all his amazing Hurdy Gurdy parts out), we proceeded to mix. It didn't give up without a fight. The simpler it is the harder it can be. I listened to first mix - "Huntington", a deeply personal song, a requiem to my father, and I knew I lived up as much as I could to the record. Everyone gave it their best and their all - I could want no more. The rest is up to you. As for me, I am profoundly honored to have been a part. I hope how special it was to the musicians comes across in the tracks and you feel them breathe a little bit.

TRACK LIST:
01. COME WITH ME
02. EVEN THOUGH +
03. SWEET THAT RUNS THRU
04. WHO ARE YOU NOW
05. TWIST OF FATE +
06. HOME
07. DON'T WAIT
08. MAY BE HOURS +
09. CLOSE YOUR EYES +
10. SEND YOU LOVE +
11. WHAT ABOUT LOVE
12. HUNTINGTON

CREDITS AND MAKING OF:

Produced and MIxed by Derek
+ Mixed by Derek and Steve Durkee
Engineered by Derek
Assistant engineer and additional production by Joanna Justice

Recorded and Mixed at the Barn Studio, Media PA
Mastered by Peter Humphreys at Masterworks, Philadelphia PA

CD design by Derek
Photography by Mia Laverata and Joey McLaughlin

Music and Lyrics by Derek

Derek Chafin: vocal, guitar, programming,
*Tim Reeder: drums
\ Chris Sidel: bass
/David Lenat: guitar

Additional Musician's;
Mark Schrieber: drums on Tell Me
Chad Gustafson: Key's on Over Y'r Shoulder
Mike: Trombone on So Ends

**Joanna Justice: drums

I think it was Echoplexed that did it. I thought it rocked pretty damn hard. I just didn't feel the need to rock - well, not as much or in that guitar slinging, rip your head off kind of way.. well, not as much. I felt really confident of going into a new sonic landscape after making Echoplexed. I wasn't writing for guitar as much as for overall vibe and melody. It was more about power through song than guitar. I wanted to explore more, make new sounds, and teeter on the beautiful and disturbing. Mostly I wanted it to be beautiful. That's the simple word for it. Beautiful. It can be sad, it can be defiant, it can be week and strong, flawed, perfect, or perfectly flawed. Beauty. That's what I wanted to do. I wanted it to have grooves that were sexy. Lyrics that were still poetic but not as veiled as my work before. I wanted to challenge myself on all levels - sonically, as a writer, as a producer, as a guitars, vocalist - as a musician. Now, I'm not talking about some art rock or jazz exploration - it's about the tune still, always. I wanted to write in bigger structures and still make it sound and feel cohesive and easy. ABABCB was not cutting it anymore. I don't think I even knew it then but looking back now I know it was what was running underneath It was beauty and the idea of trying to be more and more truthful. A lie can tell one just as much about the truth as the truth itself - it seemed interesting to me and fertile ground. I also felt that could no longer hide behind guitars. They can be so amazing sometimes that they can squeeze the life out of a song. A fine line to walk. I also needed to see what I could do. Not in some ego trip kind of way -maybe but more as a challenge than being self assured. No band, no producer, just whatever I thought would work. Records made in vacuums generally suck so I wasn't about being a one man band either but the sinking or floating resides on my shoulders. Joanna Justice was also crucial to the record - a great critic and friend.
I hope you dig it.

TRACK LIST;
01. HARD TO DO */ \
02. LIGHT
03. WHO ARE YOU NOW
04. SITTING **
05. HOME *
06. WHAT ABOUT LOVE *
07. TELL ME
08. DROP D *
09. OVER Y'R SHOULDER* / \
10. SO ENDS * / \
11. UNTIL ** \
12. SLOW MOTION SUICIDE * /

headdress
dark
crazy	hi
mc garrett's hair
paperthin	hi
be there
lift
gone to ground	hi
twist the fate	hi
no love	hi
may i
live baby	hi

BUY or DOWNLOAD
come with me	hi	low
even though	hi	low
sweet that..	hi	low
who are you now	hi	low
twist	hi	low
home	hi	low
don't wait	hi	low
may be hours	hi	low
close your eyes	hi	low
send you love	hi	low
what about love	hi	low
huntington	hi	low

forever	hi	low
needle	hi	low
give you love	hi	low
upon yourself	hi	low
sweet that...	hi	low
goin down	hi	low
straight on	hi	low
war	hi	low
superstatic	hi	low
get high	hi	low
oh mary	hi	low

BUY or DOWNLOAD
air in you lungs	hi	low
find	hi	low
light	hi	low
sitting	hi	low
tell me	hi	low
until	hi	low
light up	hi	low
do your worst	hi	low
slow motion..	hi	low
	hi	low
	hi	low
.	hi	low

home (electric)
hard to do
So Ends
Over Yr Shoulder
who are you now (elect.)
what about love (elect.)