Back almost 20 years ago when LIZARDS FROM AFAR were a college band, my friend Chopper Newt was our main songwriter. We all wrote songs, but Chopper had a style that was definitely more advanced and mature than the rest of us. So most of the songs we did were written, co-written, or in some way tweaked by him. You think that would’ve made the rest of us angry, but the truth is that we all clearly understood that his stuff was just better than ours. (Gator may disagree…either way, I was a distant 5th.)
When we got back together 3 years ago to try virtual recording online, Chris didn’t want to write songs. He seemed content (enough) to sing, play guitar and mix the music. This was good news for me because we ended up doing a lot of songs I wrote. I never stopped bugging him to write something, though.
Sometime late in 2009, Chopper sent out an email title “Inspiration Struck”. Enclosed were lyrics to a proposed suite of music. Three songs that were unique, but worked together musically and narratively to tell a bigger story. At first I wasn’t knocked out by what I read because I didn’t understand what the lyrics meant. (What that means is that I felt stupid and inadequate.) A few months later he sent us the music and I no longer cared that I didn’t understand the lyrics because it was just cool.
So, give Westward a chance. It’s a pretty ambitious undertaking for us and I’m very happy with how it turned out.
Also, if you think you know what it all means, please tell me because Chopper will not. (Seriously.)
