Matt's story:
As we are going through all of these songs, I think this is one that may get overlooked in the real meaning behind it. This song is based on the 4 Horseman of the Apocalypse from the book of Revelations. This is where the "come and see" comes from, although each individual horseman only used the word "come." I took from the movie where it was spelled on the wall in blood, "come and see." Now at first listen, this may seem like a touchy, feely, biblical song about the union of man and woman, the the beauty of that, and mans humble place before God. But, the theme of the chorus ties into that judgement day vision where the second horseman (Red Horse) comes to slaughter all. So come and see all your glory is really the humble repentance before God, and a quest to try see and feel all that is righteous in this world, which so often is filled with suffering, before judgement day comes - if you believe in such stuff... I believe in God but I am not a bible banger, just thought it made for a thought provoking, good song.

John's story:
This one was originally on Matt's solo CD "American Idle". We both really liked it, so decided to re-do it. Matt's playing all the acoustic guitars & guijo. I've already been asked "who's playing the keyboards"? Those aren't keyboards. Those are my "G-Strings". Huh? I discovered a neat trick on my pedal board not too long after I got it. Basically, it's a clean guitar going through lots & lots of compression, delay & reverb. I have to strum the chord before the note changes with the volume pedal off, and then I bring the volume pedal back up "on time". It takes some getting used to, as you literally have to play ahead of the key changes, but I'm weird like that, so. First solo is through a talk box simulator, and the 2nd one goes through an octave-up pedal.

Two other things of note. I'm a guitar player by trade, but still enjoy playing the bass. I've always been a fan, though, of a Chris Squire/Geddy Lee "in your face" bass sound. I LIKE TREBLE ON BASS! (I can see the real bass players rolling their eyes.)

Secondly. Some of you might notice how these tunes aren't super-duper LOUD like everything else is nowadays. This is completely by design. I am NOT a fan of the current "Volume Wars" fad that's going on. You can go back and listen to some of your older CD's. You'll notice that they're quieter, but you'll also notice that when you turn your volume UP, these songs really start sounding better & better. When you start cranking most of the over-compressed recordings you hear today, it gets nastier and nastier. You'll also notice with a lot of these new recordings that the quiet parts are still loud, and the loud parts just start getting distorted. The over-compression completely defeats the purpose of one of the better advantages of digital recording - dynamic range. The quiets are quieter, and the louds are louder. It actually allows whatever equipment you're listening through to WORK! What's really odd, though, is that how just the opposite of this goes on in movies nowadays. They don't use enough compression. Ever notice how you have to crank your volume to hear people talk during normal conversation, then things like music and/or loud noises practically run you out of the room? Anyways - a LOT of people (from what I've been reading currently) are seriously starting to get tired of the out-of-control volume wars, so I figured "WTF", and we decided to take things down a couple of notches. What's funnier - is that if these songs go on the radio and/or anything like iTunes, etc., they're going to be at the same volume as all of the other songs!

So anyway - crank these songs up. Considering we recorded all of this stuff on $5 mics and fishing line, we kind of figured we would have to do anything we could to make the overall sound a little better!