Ben: Cryonaut in particular is one of those songs this drummer likes because, whatever I throw around in the piece, seems to work. It's percussion was wrapped around a double-bass conflaguration with the rack toms thrown in to make "dancing quadruplets", which can also be described as the sound of Homer Simpson falling down 58 flights of stairs. I like the crazy "Wipe Out"-ish train wrecks just before the quiet bits. "A Muppet". Indeed....
Bob's lyrics are my idea of what 'epic' is about. Grand in scope and about something we all know well in Manitoba. Fucking cold winters. Not that I ever fucked one. The music reflects that big nasty juggernaut boogernaut of crappy weather by sounding like the plodding of hexagonal wheels...thud thud thudthudthud thud. Well, ok, maybe those old bias-ply K-Mart tyres.
The song is like an old Jeep. Smacked up, rusty, a wry smile on the grille, bits and pieces flying off, but still furiously driving off-road and keeping itself together. And it's also like a frozen herring: frosty-shiney. And fishy. But not like eels. But it is kind of electric.....
Bob: The term 'cryonaut,' as used in contemporary science fiction, usually refers to corpsicles- people frozen in suspended animation to be thawed out when their medical problems can be cured, as an example. Some have postulated similar techniques as a form of 'time travel' in which you go to sleep in 2000, say, and get thawed 1000 years hence. [I'm looking at you, Philip J. Fry.] This song is not about them... Coincidentally, 'Temporal Stasis,' another of our tunes, explores an aspect of this concept, although it was written independantly of this one. Here the word 'cryonaut' is a combination of 'cryo-' [meaning 'bloody cold'] and '-naut' from the word 'juggernaut,' [which means 'a big fucking thing that rolls over you, overpowering you whether you want it to or not.' Kind of like my ex.] If you've ever been in Winnipeg during the winter, you know what this song's about. If you haven't, come and visit. I'll point and laugh. Unless you're from Siberia [or other comparable locales,] in which case, das vedanya, gospodin! But I digress... The main riffs are Basil's, and the words are mine, and I think I suggested the 7/4 bits in the first movement. The title was inspired by 'Boogernaut,' which Ben and Bas joked about [a tune they did in high school with another band, apparently.] We've never gotten a decent demo of this captured. We tried to 4-track it in the 90's, but kept running out of room on the tape, trying to get all the transitions and solos, etc. captured. Soon...
The unbound season's burst it's chains,
Southward flies from it's domain,
White corruption, cold seduction,
Frozen rock on ice-scorched plain.
The naked blasted trees are bent,
To bear the load that nature's sent,
Earth is freezing, tortured, squeezing,
The sundered ground is cracked and rent.
Plunging downward through the air,
Crystals forming as I stare.
Life is fleeing and seeking protection,
Taking refuge in every direction,
Tunnel downward, travel southward,
As the beast is making selections.
Frozen land in windswept anguish,
Golden Land under whiteness vanish,
Piling, drifting, moving, shifting,
Obscuring clouds of moisture banish.
Plunging downward as I stare,
Crystals forming in the air.
Hide yourself indoors, take shelter from the storm,
Depressing months of solitude, trying to stay warm.
Venture not into the cold, stay safely by your fire,
Until the spring has come to stay, and winter has expired.
Solo
5 Stops
Train Wreck
Oh, to be a witness to the shrouded forests' glow,
Gazing through the winterlight, peaceful rolls of snow,
The air so crisp, and blue the sky,
The clouds so sharp and clear to eye,
Majestic white plains calling me,
Breath frosted in a sigh.
Solo
Grandeur of desolation calls, conciousness grows numb,
Silence of the Earth profound, the world is deaf and dumb,
Lay me by the riverside,
As the western sunlight dies,
To gaze o'erhead, and be engulfed
In starry winter skies.
Cryonaut - the riff, as seen by:
Basil
Bob
and Ben. . .
As you can see, Bas and Bob count different '1s', and it's time for Benny's nap.