“The Making of i” – The Stories Behind the Songs

“The Making of i” – The Stories Behind the Songs.
written by my brother and main “i” lyricist R. Scott Kosinski.

In the summer of 2000, Rob approached me about writing some lyrics for a song he had written. Rob was a man without a country at that time. He had tons of musical ideas, but was looking for a little direction. He had recorded two albums of just his stuff in the past, and was thinking of going that route again. Luckily for me, his first tune Holiday of Fools had him stumped.

For now, here’s a brief look at what happened behind the scenes for “i”.

So The Road Ends Here:

My ex-wife called me one day to tell me that her father was having problems with his heart. When they did blood work, the discovered he also had Leukemia. That night I was thinking about what must go through someone’s head not just after learning of the news, but the next day when they wake up. I sat down and wrote most of the lyrics that night. About a month later I went down to visit Rob with what I had. He had a kick-ass guitar riff he was looking for lyrics to compliment. We looked at the Road lyrics – kind of a sad, lamenting tale and the riff. Rob went off by himself with the lyrics and the riff in his head. He came back and said, “Yeah, I think it will work.” He started playing the music he had already recorded and laid down a vocal track. I sat kind of perplexed. He wasn’t singing all of the words in each verse… But one thing I’ve learned: Never question a genius at work. He then laid down another track with the missing lyrics. They overlapped, and it sounded kind of cool! I worked on finishing the lyrics and Rob wrote more of the music. We had successfully shoe-horned ballad-type lyrics into rock music. My ex-father in law is a guitarist, so he would appreciate it. I brought a rough draft home to listen to. Two months later Rob finished it. He had his friend Steve Lamagna do a cranking solo and the chops on the last verse really rocked!

Remain:

This is the last song Rob and I worked on together on the album. He came up with the idea for the music and sent it to me. The New England Patriots had just won the Superbowl the past year. I wrote some lyrics about winning against the odds and emailed them back. Unfortunately the music reminded Rob of “I Do” by Lisa Loeb and that vocal melody was stuck in his head. So, I actually took the music and added vocals of the first verse. I hope Rob deleted that sound clip because if you were to ever hear it, you’d want to poke your eardrums out with a small flat-head screwdriver. Rob then added them himself. Of all the songs, I like this one the best.

Unsung Heroes:

In July 2001, I was reading the paper and there was something mentioned about the six firefighters that died in Worcester, Massachusetts on December 3, 1999. I decided to write lyrics about emergency personnel in general called Unsung Heroes. I wrote down some scratch lyrics and sent them to Rob. Rob took them and totally rearranged them (the verse became the chorus and the chorus became the verse.) He also wrote some cool music to add to them. In one night we had totally written the song – we didn’t start until 9:30pm so it was like 1:00am when we finished. It was also the first song we wrote together 1500 miles apart using Cakewalk and Instant Messenger. Rob’s 4th floor band was starting to get gigs so the final cut wasn’t recorded for some months…. In the meantime the tragedy of September 11, 2001 occurred. That motivated Rob to finish the final recording in their honor.

Dr. Goldman (You’re Not Listening):

Dr. Goldman is a song inspired by a sadistic psychiatrist based on a real-life doctor. While names were changed to protect the guilty, not ALL of what was written is true? or false? I wrote the original lyrics and Rob edited them and wrote the music. While it was being showcased on a music-oriented web page called Ampcast.com, it made it to #1 for several months in the Hard Rock chart, and was #1 overall on the site for a short period of time.

Medicate:

This is the first song I ever wrote on guitar. I had just gotten divorced and was living with my parents…just where you want to be in life at 30. I was watching Dante’s Peak and noodling around with the Steinberger double-neck guitar I had just bought. I then wrote some lyrics, trying to be as depressing as I could (does it show?) I went down to visit Rob in Florida for the first time in six years several months later and we recorded this song. If you listen carefully with headphones, you may just be able to discern the six guitar tracks, including one of a mic’d electric guitar with no amplification in order to get that clicky strumming sound. Like Goldman, there is a reality to be had in these lyrics somewhere.

Sue Them All:

One night while chatting on AIM, Rob sent me the final draft of this tune. His band had done quite a few shows and Rob was starting to write lots of music. What you hear on this album is but a taste of the creativity he was beginning to feel. In fact, even in the middle of making this album he has continued to record ideas for punk, progressive rock (a-la Dream Theatre-like) Billy Joel type piano rock, Gangsta- Rap? I could go on, and maybe some day you may hear some of them. Oh yes, about Sue Them All… we haven’t talked about the inspiration of this song, but I think two things occurred:

* 1. Rob’s late-night Star Trek reruns were interrupted by too many Dial-A-Lawyer commercials
* 2. Rob read a government study that said most government studies are later contradicted by further government studies?at least that’s what they are saying for now.

Come Back:

Way back in the late 1980’s, I would sometimes hum tunes– I thought I would one day write as a rock-star– in the mornings before school. Well, that dream died in the 1990’s as I became a computer geek working 90 hours a week for the man. When we were in the midst of making this album, I decided to actually lyrics based on that chorus I had thought of so long ago. I sent it to Rob and never heard much about it. Then about 6 months later, I guess Rob got up at 3:00am and wrote what you hear today, after tweaking and adding to the lyrics.

Power Tools:

Rob wrote this for a short documentary. All I know is when it’s playing on the CD player in my car, I turn it up really loud and start driving REALLY fast.

Torn:

This is a song I started on bass as kind of a joke. One of the stations in the Boston area started playing really heavy metal songs with lots of low bass lines. I originally called this song 30 Hertz, and wrote some sarcastic lyrics that Rob may let me post. I flew to Florida with it (and by the way, this is one of only three songs we actually worked on in the same room.) Rob scratched out an arrangement and added some cool guitars and drums but didn’t want to ruin it with the stupid lyrics. I flew home listening to the scratch version of the music and wrote some lyrics that I sent Rob that night over email when I got home. Again, Steve Lamanga does his magic on guitar for the solo. The ending Rob does, um, I don’t know what he had drunk or smoked, but it grows on you after hearing it a few times.

How Much Is Enough:

Rob bought a Fender Telecoustic and started playing with it. He then wrote the opening and the verse and sent it to me. I was like “Holy Sh*t, that ROCKS!” By now Rob had probably done 50+ shows with his band and was back on his game musically. I wish I had gotten to write lyrics for this one, but Rob inspired himself so much with the music, he flew solo on this mission. It’s another ear-shattering, speeding-ticket kind of song to listen to.

Holiday of Fools:

This is the first song we collaborated on. I listened to the music for like 2 days. I finally started to get some inspiration from what was going on around me. The chorus and the bridge of this song are probably the most complex that were written for the whole album, so it was a good way to get my creative juices going. It’s melodic and you can’t mosh to it, but it’s a good song in a new genre Rob had created “Progressive Easy Listening.” He hasn’t written any other songs for his new genre yet, but maybe someday he and others like him will.