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Producer’s Notes and Lyrics PRODUCER NOTES & L YRICS Enclosed you will find notes on what inspired the songs from our album “Sll Looking For The An- swers”, how we went about recording the al- bum, as well as lyrics for all songs. Sit back, put on the headphones, crank it up, grab a beverage of your choice and enjoy with our compliments! Signed, The Nerds of Norcal Aka 41POINT9 BOB MADSEN’S PRODUCER NOTES & L YRICS The Bullet’s in the Barrel Lyrics by Bob Madsen, Music by Bob Madsen, Brian Cline, and Kenny Steel This song was actually the third song wrien for the album. Like most of my songs it be- gan as a set of lyrics. I remember that I had been listening to a lot of Kip Winger’s solo material at that me, parcularly “Songs from the Ocean Floor” and his arrangement ideas were forefront in my mind. I was driving to a Sacramento suburb known as Elk Grove for work, when I came up with the idea of using ballisc terms to describe a breakup. I had wanted to write a song in the vein of “Punch and Judy” by Marillion for a really long me, but had never found quite the right vehicle for the idea. I quickly real- ized this theme might work. I remember coming up with the first few lines and had to keep repeang them over and over to myself in order not to forget unl I could stop the car and write them down. Eventually I pulled over in a Wal-Mart parking lot and quickly scribbled the first verse while sing in my car. The rest of the lyrics followed shortly over the next day or so. The idea of combining a Kip Winger-esque arrangement with Fish lyrics really intrigued me. A few days later I showed Kenny the song lyrics while in the studio. We started working on some ideas together and I showed him the songs that had inspired the idea. We started trying out some chord progressions but nothing really felt right, unl we joked about this video that had been running round the ‘net regarding the overuse of the first half of Pachelbel’s Canon in D Minor and how many hit songs had been wrien us- ing these exact chord intervals. I sarcascally joked, “I’d really like to have a hit song too so let’s just use those chords!” When we stopped laughing, we realized, “Hey, this could work!” Using those chords, the rest of the song came together quickly. Now we just have to wait and see whether it be- comes a hit or not…. Chuckle chuckle. Kenny and I worked over a series of weekends to record the basic tracks. Due to the somber tone of the song I decided to use my six string fretless bass and give it some dark and slippery lines. Kenny layered track a er track of thick guitars. Once we had built up a prey good bed of ideas we sent it to Nick for him to work his magic on drums. His drumming on this song is for me one of the highlights of the album. BOB MADSEN’S PRODUCER NOTES & L YRICS The Bullet’s in the Barrel - Connued At this point, I wasn’t quite happy with the inial way the song started. So I sat down at the computer and started messing with Kenny’s guitar tracks (one of my favorite pasmes by the way) and came up with the intro part using bits and pieces from the song. But there was something sll missing. That’s when I realized that we could put a bit of dialogue in the intro that would sound like a cheesy soap opera with a plot line similar to the song’s. All fired up for this idea, I enlisted the help of a good friend with a voice like a North Carolina version of Demi Moore (and yeah guys she’s cute too!) and Kenny to act out the parts. Amidst a lot of giggling and goofing off, I wrote some dialogue and the two acted the part of the quarreling couple. I remember Jen- nifer even punched Kenny a few mes to “get into character.” A great me was had by all…except perhaps for Kenny’s shoulder. An- yway, with the dramac opening segment of the song, the band thought this song would be a perfect album opener. Next up was Brian’s vocal tracks. We sent him a mix of the song, the lyrics and laughingly wished him luck in trying to fit the lyrics to the music. I, for one, had no idea how he was going to do it. But as usual Brian rose to the challenge and with a bit of adept eding and shoehorning, delivered a brilliant vocal performance. We added a bit of icing on the cake with extra harmonies and the wedding vow’s secon and the song was done. Artillery in the living room, the children run for cover Questioning all I knew now that it’s finally over Emining the evidence In the murder of a family dream Forensic evaluation of the deadly scene Till death do us part The Bullet’s in the Barrel It used to be a promise Now its gone too far Fait accompli, the deed is done Did you even know his name In his bed you loaded the gun My god, did you feel no shame Hollow point words full metal jack et lies Love lies bleeding, love dies Was such a cliché…Until today The bullet’s in the ba rrel the finger is on the trigger Ready set aim shoot for the heart Fire in the hole to a hole that’s in my heart This shot gun wedding has fallen apart I have to stand and look you in the eyes And say goodbye, we’re past the point of reasons why Chorus out……. BOB MADSEN’S PRODUCER NOTES & L YRICS Living in Hard Times Lyrics by Bob Madsen , Music by Bob Madsen, Kenny Steel, and Brian Cline This song was actually wrien when I was 17 years old and in high school. I had just read “The Grapes of Wrath” by Steinbeck and had wrien a song about the me period. The song had languished in an old binder and had never really been given the chance to breathe. I decided to dust off the cobwebs on it and start developing it for the album. Kenny read the lyrics one day in the studio and really like the idea. I sang him the melody line I had wrien way back when and we pieced together a rough skele- ton for the song. At that point, Kenny told me about this idea that he had always wanted to try for a song intro. The idea was to use the cycle of fi hs (a musical and mathemacal concept) and playing only certain parts of the cycle work your way around the formula. Ad- miedly, I was very skepcal of the idea, as I know next to nothing about music theory and the whole idea sounded very cold and clinical to my mind. He told me to have faith and he would surprise me. Well, two weeks later he did. Kenny had taken what I had presumed to be a cold, mathemacal formula and developed it into one of the most beauful, passionate and dynamic pieces of music I have ever been involved with. So what if the song had bal- looned to almost 8 minutes in length. This was prog baby! Full speed ahead! Once again, the basic tracks winged their way down to Southern California where at Casa D’Virgilio, amazing drum tracks were recorded. The song then sat for a while unl Brian could make his way north to my studio to hear the song and lay some scratch vocals. Right before Xmas 2009, Brian and his family came to visit my family up in the Sierras. A er going out to a Cornish Christmas cel- ebraon and having a great me (and yes there may have been some alcohol involved), we came back to the studio and played with vocal ideas. Brian got all inspired about the modern day parallels to this story about the great depression and laughed about the banker references as he and I both have been in banking related careers outside our musical endeavors. Brian took these ideas home and polished his performances and did the final vocal recording, while sober this me, at his studio. We laid on some harmony tracks graciously recorded by Molly Roth and the track was complete. The result is the “opus” for the album. It came out much beer than anything I had ancipated and I’m so glad this old song has finally seen the light of day. Living in Hard Times Wheels turn on a dusty road, a road that leads out west A cloud of dust hanging in the air, you know we gave our best Papa stares at the road ahead as the past runs through his mind The dust came and we had to move on, Now we don’t know what we will find The banker man said, son if I can, I’ll do my best for you Please understand, I hate to take your land But what am I supposed to do? We’re living in hard times Chorus When the bank man came and took our land, you know he took our pride We can’t fight what we can’t see and you know it hurts inside We will survive we’ll hold our own, we’ll get by in a strange new place .

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