2 A.M.
In the snow
Where our breathing bodies glowed
Your tattoos
Like carving trees
Into air on curling feet
Find a bedroom
More tattoos
And your skinny body moved so
I pressed my lips
To the spring
And the bed began to sing
Close my eyes
Pretend to sleep
As I memorize you breath
Into me and I'll defuse
To the outlines of your bruises but
When I try I can't help but think
That when I write this song this week I'll
Be all alone
And I'll sing the words
To an audience of chords
Chords!
Pinkerton was one of the first songs I wrote for the album and I think sort of set the direction for it. It's definitely one of my favorites. It came about when I was still recording in my dad's basement my sophomore year of college. When it was finished I remember it was the first song I'd ever written that I didn't have any doubts about whatsoever. I felt like it didn't even matter if I liked it or not. It felt like something outside of myself. I think the reason for that is the lyrics just felt really honest. It was a real comfort to me at the time I wrote it and honestly for a long time after. It still kind of is.
The production came together in just a couple of weeks, which is way faster than almost any of the other tracks on the album. I remember struggling with the entry-point and mixing of the left-channel bass piano part (originally it came in with the strummed guitars), and whether to double the backing vocals or not. I was listening to The Glow, Pt. 2 a lot at this time and that influence certainly made its way into this song, most obviously I'd think in the organs and piano solo. I've always felt like the solo sounded like someone being bossy, and then the other piano trying to get it down. That all felt very fitting to me. Initially they were two separate parts and I thought I'd have to choose one. I was really happy I figured out how to use both.
I don't know why I decided to switch the song from piano to guitar. I think I had been stuck for sections and decided to see if I could come up with anything by trying another instrument. The G-G# progression actually came from accidentally playing the wrong position on the fretboard. I do remember missing the droning piano G note on the guitar version but compromising by putting it on the Farfisa / melodica instead, which is the drone that fades in halfway through the first verse. That decision might have been influenced by the viola drone in Heroin by The Velvet Underground, which I was also listening to a lot at that time.
My friend Steve had bought an upright bass from our chemistry teacher in high school and I asked him if I could borrow it to use on the new acoustic songs I was writing. I ended up keeping it for the next 2 years and using it on most of the album. The melodica I had bought for a cover of "Naomi" by Neutral Milk hotel that my friend and I did in junior high. The Farfisa my dad had just brought home one day for use in his surf-Western band. I don't think he meant to buy a reed organ though. The piano was my dad's girlfriend's upright which was in the basement with me.
I don't know where the crickets and sprinkler idea came from. There were lots of crickets around my mom's house when I was a kid, and sprinklers would run at night in the field of the school behind her house. The recordings come from ibirdfilm and rucisko on freesound.org. I wished that I had done those recordings myself and thought about remaking them, but I really liked the way these sounded. And no one has to even know I didn't do it.
I named it after Pinkerton by Weezer because I felt like they were kind of about the same thing. That album might actually be my favorite lyrics of all time. It's just so honest. They're not even like "well written" or "beautiful" or "cool", but that's actually why they're so good. He didn't care about being impressive he was just being honest. And that's actually the only thing that matters at all.
The first demo I have of Pinkerton is a piano recording dated December 10th, 2019 which outlines the original verse progression:
The next recording is from December 15th. This one has the vocal melody with some nonsense lyrics as well as the basic song structure:
The next recording is from 2 days later and outlines G-G# progression that happens at the end of each verse. In this recording it resolves to an F Major rather than the D#:
From that same day is a recording with the G-G# resolving to the D#:
The final demo recording is dated December 28th. By this point the song had its full structure and lyrics:
The only structural difference between this recording and the completed one is the presence of a final section after the bridge. I had been struggling to make it interesting and my sister proposed I just remove it, which I did.
The only Pro Tools demo I have of Pinkerton is this one dated January 15th, 2020. In it the final section is still attached, there's no left-channel bass piano, the backing vocals are doubled, and there's no melodica, Farfisa, or bass:
And shortly after that it was finished. Apart from the lead vocals and the bass, which were re-recorded in 2023, the final stems are all the originals that were done in my dad's basement. If I were to mix it today I'd probably change a couple things, but I kind of wanted to keep it how it was originally. Like there's no vocal volume automation which most of the other tracks do have. The piano mics (two Rode NT1-As) were placed right in front of the removed upper panel of the piano. Everything else was recorded mono with a single of those mics. The guitars were mic'd right in front of the soundholes which caused a lot of problems in the EQ, and that along with the very old strings contributed to their dullness, which I do like. The bass was mic'd about 18 inches from the f-hole and I don't remember how the other stuff was mic'd.
Personnel:
Ibanez Artwood AC240
Steve's Stand-up Bass
Melodica
Farfisa Organ
Piano
Recorded at 16bit 44.1khz
Unmastered Version:
Lyrics sheet:
