Background: Dexter Bracket has been a "Band" going back as far as the 1980's. Eric, Paul, CJ Topes, and Dave have played together on and off so long that it they know what the other will do before they do. This CD was the brainchild of Eric in order to get back to recording after taking off for nearly a decade. Some of these songs are very old and were never properly recorded and some were written for this project.
The concept came from the response to: "How do you write your songs". The answer was: You know how you get earworms and keep hearing a song in your head. Well, after you get two or three of those they tend to turn in to static. It's from this static (if you listen close enough) a "NEW" song will form and just jump out begging to be put to paper! Songs Out of Static also came to be the backdrop to the project. Static being the normal day-to-day tasks, and stresses. This project was done despite our busy life's. Tracks were interrupted by jobs, dogs, kids, wives, ice, wind, the flu and whiskey!

Production: The Drums were all recording in one 3 hours session in Milwaukee at Studio Z's using Pro-Tools. Dave's nickname for the Studio has always been "One Take Dave"a and this project was no different. Really Only a few tracks required a 2nd (or 3rd) attempt. We then took all the Pro-tool tracks, imported them to Cubase LE and used a Lexicon Omega to lay all the other tracks. The recordings were then mix to two tracks and Mastered using Cubase Wavlab 5.0. From us to you
Enjoy!

Background: This song is one of those that "just came to me". The whole thing just jumped "Out of the Static" while taking a shower in the morning getting ready for work. I quickly got dressed ran down to the studio where I wrote down the lyrics and 'whipped' up some music.

Production: I came to HATE this song while recording it as I just could NOT get the feel to the song the way I felt it should go! I rewrote the bass line, to which Paul was worried it might be TOO busy. Although he found the right groove, I STILL could not get the right feel. So, I hacked off the intro (that's why it just starts with Rob's "Tried baby, oh os hard") and added the driving guitar that picks up on Paul's bass Groove. Turned out pretty well!

Background: I wrote this song about a very good friend NOT a divorce! This was the classic boy-meets-girl and girl-and-best-friend-do-NOT-get-a-long! My best friend was head over heals with a woman and her and I were like oil and water. We did not get a long at ALL! But, I was very happy for my friend and wanted him to be happy. Which meant I needed to bow out of the picture. That worked for him and me but, "How Do We Tell Our Friends"? They eventually broke up, and he still plays drums in my band ;)

Production: This song is really a remake for us. We released it years ago on cassette. And in fact found it's way to the local radio station. This song is MUCH better with Rob singing. However, in the studio we played it too fast so, in production I had find the right tempo and slow it down a bit!

Background: This is the first song I wrote after 'putting it down' for about 10 years. It is about when I quit my day job and started a software company. I was literally working on my back patio enjoying the backyard while doing what I love to do (besides playing guitar) and that is working on software. I thought about if it could really just be that easy to quit the rat race and go and enjoy your life. "Can I go? Do I need permission?"

Production: The concept was for Rob and I sing a duet on this song but, after having Rob NAIL it, there was really no added value to have me sing with him so, I created the big backing thing during the chorus.

Background: Most likely my favorite set of lyrics I ever wrote. I wrote this after I received the invite to a class reunion. Seeing the names of people I had not seen in years made me break out my senior year yearbook. In the front of that book was a full page 'history' from girl who I knew since 1st grade and that REALLY took me down memory lane! The bizzaro part to the story is that she remembered how much I liked brown eyes on girls and had told her about a girlfriend that had 'The Brown Eyes of all brown eyes!'. Flash forward several years later after I wrote the song: I run in to THAT girl who had THOSE eyes while going back to school. I got to tell her that I wrote a song about her.... and today, that girl is my wife.
Oh! And the name of the year book? "Sweet Life"

Production: I originally was planning on play the bass part to this song. But, in the studio while recording the drums, I watched in jaw-dropping-awe of what Paul was doing for the bass line of the that song. There was just NO WAY I could even come close to that!

Background: This was the LAST song I wrote before I quit playing and moved to Ohio. Probably the best song I've ever put together. This one just rolled off the guitar. I wrote the whole song as you hear it in about 15 minutes.

Production: I just couldn't stop! There are about 36 tracks on this puppy. After hearing the album "Pretty Odd." by Panic at the Disco, I was inspired to add the "strings" and "horns"... Killer Bass on this track too, no? In fact the original bass scratch track had the ending notes that I copied for the ending guitar solo....

Background: After spending 3 weeks in France for a pretty intense job, I was working through some jet lag with me, a guitar, a couch and some beer at home. This song wrote itself! It's about being HOME after being on the road for a long time.

Production: The original concept was a duet with me and Rob. But, once we got the mikes fired up we just kept recording different vocal parts to see what range we should be in ("I don't even know where to be"). Instead of picking ONE range, I layered them all together! CJ Topes laid down that awesome solo during the recording of the drums. It's still one of my favorites! I originally wanted the opening guitar solo/hook to be done with a horn section but, I didn't have the resources to do that :(

Background: This the first song I tried to just write a "story". The Bass line I wrote on the key boards and then the guitar just fell in line. I tried to make this song "three songs in one" with three distinct parts. Some of the lyrics were not written with a singer in mind and so some of the words did not use the proper phrasing to allow a singer to hit their sweet spot. After working with Ray Smeltzer to help him master one of his CD's I enlisted him to help me round out some the words. He came up with the whole backing vocals during Kelly's vocals.

Production: Because I wanted three distinct songs-in-a-song, I wanted three vocalist. I always envisioned a female voice for the "lonely part" and Rob was able to enlist a friend with an awesome voices. Kelly did a fantastic job not even considering the fact that this the first time she was in the studio! The song never had a 'hook' written for it and I thought I'd just ask Brian if he'd be interested in taking a shot at it. What he came up with was unbelievable! The level of talent not only in the performance of the guitar work but, how perfectly he wrote the piece to not just fit the song but, elevated the quality of the song

Background: While recording another project, I was warming up on the guitar and the main hook-riff came out and I thought: "Hey that's a song!"

Production: This song was supposed to fade out ("Or Not fade out") but, it was feeling so good we let it just run to the end. Besides "back in the day" this was a Jam band... We were just stretching our legs a bit.

Background: This is an OLD song. "Back in the Day" we had a song called "War" and it was lot of our fans favorite songs. To it was a boring long jam. I sat down to write "War 2.0". Some thing that had more structure yet still rocked. Well, you're listening to version 2.5 for the fist iteration didn't have a final verse "When the snow as gone, how soon we forget the cold". But Steve, a friend of the band suggested we "sum it all up with a final verse". So, then we had the middle jam as an instrumental. But, during this session it just seemed to me like it would be more powerful of a song if I added lyrics to the middle part. In typical "Songs Out of Static" style, the lyrics came to me while getting ready to take the kids to soccer, and I had to quickly right down the lyrics on a series of post it notes.

Production: Lot of guitars! 12 string acoustic and electric, 6 string acoustic and electric! However, the middle part has only ONE guitar and ONE Bass. The guitar amp was turned up as loud as it could go! During some of the production I let a couple of people listen to the rough draft and they commented on the "Pink Floyd-ness" of it (myself, I felt is was more of a Rush song) and so, in the final mix I maxed out the "Floyd-ness" with all the extra Delays.