In The Beginning

Music by David Fowler

Arranged and performed by Echo Movement

Behind the Song
It's hard to romanticize theoretical physics, astronomy and metaphysics, then set it to melody. But we did our best, for now, in this song. Before we get into anything else, we want to say we owe our inspiration for this song to A Briefer History of Time by Professor Stephen Hawking.

Ok...you're probably already familiar with the Big Bang theory, although it's not much a theory anymore because we can observe its effects. Most astrophysicists agree that it may soon graduate to fact. Anyway, the concept in these lyrics is that all physical matter (you, your computer, Earth, the Milky Way and the estimated 100 billion other galaxies) was once squished into an infinitesimally-small ball called a singularity.

From what scientists currently know, the singularity exploded (or just started expanding rapidly) in all directions, simultaneously creating physical matter, dark energy, some rudimentary physics, space itself, and perhaps many other things we've yet to discover. The elements were created within seconds, and started to settle and coalesce over billions of years, thanks to the attraction of particles that we call gravity.

Hard to think that this is all true, but rest assured, this actually happened. I don't remember being born, but I'm pretty sure that happened, too.

Fast forward an estimated 13.7 billion years, and here we are- these things filled with goo on the surface of a huge ball. The pitfalls of humanity all-too-often deny us the fundamental freedom to remember that we are not just connected with the universe...but that we are the universe...and that is a beautiful thing.

Cool Facts

"Today we know that stars visible to the naked eye make up only a minute fraction of all the stars. We can see about five thousand stars, only about .0001 percent of all the stars in just our own galaxy, the Milky Way. The Milky Way itself is but one of more than a hundred billion galaxies that can be seen using modern telescopes - and each galaxy contains on average some one hundred billion stars. If a star were a grain of salt, you could fit all the stars visible to the naked eye on a teaspoon, but all the stars in the universe would fill a ball more than eight miles wide."

- Professor Stephen Hawking
A Briefer History of Time

The intro sound clip for In The Beginning is the real Professor Stephen Hawking during a live lecture.

Nobody knows yet where the singularity came from, but there are many theories about how this universe will end. The cyclic model theorizes the universe we know is just one life in an infinite cycle of expansion and contraction. In this scenario, the singularity expands, a universe (including "life") takes form over the course of billions/trillions of years, but gravity ultimately pulls all the matter back into a singularity, annihilating everything in the process...then starts all over again. Other theories include the big chill, the big crunch and the big rip. Read this awesome article at the Hubble site for the story behind the current theories.

Check out inspiring and thought-provoking images of the universe at the official site for the Hubble Telescope.

It's no coincidence that "in the beginning" is also the first three words of the Old Testament. Most members of Echo Movement are free thinkers and don't recognize a religious deity...this song talks about the real story of Genesis. No talking snakes, no garden, no incest...just straight-up physics.

Key Phrase
"It's all a distant part of me."

Music and Lyrics
[A Dm or A Bdim]

Stephen Hawking:
"The expansion of the universe was one of the most important intellectual discoveries of the 20th Century, or of any century. It transformed the debate about whether the universe had a beginning."
[Everything we see was once a little part of everything we touch]
"If galaxies are moving apart now, they must have been closer together in the past. If their speed had been constant, they would have all been on top of one another about 15 billion years ago. Was this the beginning of the universe?"

In the beginning there was just a ball
No bigger than an atom
Floating all alone in a dark room with no borders
And all the stars that glow, and seas, and people you know, we were together
A time when things were better

This was history's most peaceful time for us
We were always tight
Without a fight, we floating through the nighttime before order
And you and me and all the stars and seas and trees, we were together
A time when things were better

All we know is 15 billion years ago
The peace was suddenly shattered
A chain reaction blew us all apart like it never mattered
And you and me and all the things we know and see got torn from each other
The Big Bang is our mother

Everything we see
Was once a little part of everything we touch
Was just as much a part of those we love and hate
Can't separate them from the waves out on the sea
It's all a distant part of me

The Day After Chill

Music by David Fowler

Arranged and performed by Echo Movement

Behind the Song
Sometimes good ideas come at inconvenient times. I was driving, and had to take out a few cars to get into the next parking lot, a Game Stop. I recorded the main melody of The Day After Chill it into an old cell phone. Oddly enough, the panic and mayhem on the road resulted in a sweet little tune about chillin' out.

Lyrically, the song is about the time we spend as a band on the road. We have off some days, so we most-often check into a campground in the backwoods of who-knows-where. We don't know anybody for hundreds of miles. Since the shows are often chaotic and loud environments, we welcome the solitude.

The true soul of this song is in the recording. It was recorded live in Jay Alders' living room while he was painting the album cover in the next room (his studio at the time). We moved a ton of our studio gear a few miles down the road to his house, and invited a few friends and girlfriends over for the recording. It took a few takes, but what's on the album is the actual recording from that room.
Cool Facts
Instruments in the room - singing (Steve & Dave), ukulele (Dave), bass (Dan), guitar (Ed), flute (Matty Peks), congas/bongos/percussion (Colin), shakers (Steve), sand blocks (Rob).

"You keep on knocking but you can't come in" is a lyric borrowed from Keep On Knockin, a tune written by Perry Bradford and made popular by Little Richard. Other melodies, and the song on a whole, were largely inspired by The Young Rascals' Groovin'.

The title The Day After Chill is a little play on words. It was originally inspired by The Morning-After Pill, which is kind of a "chill pill" after a night of uninsured excitement...much akin to the thrills we get when we play a killer show. We don't pop pills, so our chill is the herb.

Key Phrase
"Nowhere I need to go." Alternately, "Know where I need to go."

Music and Lyrics (chords over lyrics)
F Gm
Chillin
Ain't got no place to go
Ain't got no one I know
I'm just chillin
Illin
Nowhere I need to go
Waiting for the next day's show
I'm just chillin

I hear the phone ringing, really don't care
I know the noise you're bringing, leave it out there
Am Bb C C+
I really don't give a damn when I hear from you

Chillin
Ain't got no place to go
Ain't got no one I know
I'm just chillin
Hanging around the day
Nowhere I need to go
Waiting for the next day's show
I'm just chillin

I'm taking a personal day, that's how I win
You keep on knocking but you can't come in
I really don't wanna move if I don't have to

Soul-Searching Drive

Music by David Fowler

Arranged and performed by Echo Movement

Behind the Song
This bottom-heavy dub track was largely written in the car and pieced together later in the studio. My winter of '08/'09 was defined in a series of these late-night car rides. The winters at the Jersey Shore are quaint, peaceful and just down to the townies. The roads are wide open and good for cruising...and cruising is great for deep thought. Maybe it's the white noise from the road or blasting your favorite music. Maybe it's the feeling of movement, even when there's no real place to go.

Cool Facts
The lead instrument is a melodica borrowed from Jay Alders.

To get that oscillating white noise effect, we used a Roland RE-301 (circa mid-70s) with a spring reverb and tape delay. This unit is the follow-up to the famous Space Echo (a legendary unity in reggae), and capable of producing its own self-generated noises that we thought vaguely resembled spacey road noise.

Key Phrase
"To a place I won't arrive, on my soul-searching drive."

Music and Lyrics (chords over lyrics)
Am G
The bass is in my trunk
Am
Light another funk
G
I'm my own nomadic tribe
C
On the road is where I vibe
G
And I'm cruising aimlessly
Am
Dream there's somewhere I gotta be
G
To a place I won't arrive
Am
On my soul-searching drive

So I'm going till I'm gone
Got my sunglasses on
You know it's still too bright
In the middle of the night
And I conjugate my plea
That she's waiting there for me
And I keep my love alive
On my soul-searching drive

Do It In The Ocean

Music by David & Stephen Fowler
Lyrics by David Fowler

Arranged and performed by Echo Movement

Behind the Song
At its root, this is the title track of In The Ocean. The phrase "do it in the ocean" was taken from a vintage (c. late 70s/early 80s) Belmar lifeguard tournament t-shirt. The shirt was dark blue and had silhouettes of two angels facing each other in white. Steve and I remember the shirt from when we were kids, as part of the lifeguard t-shirt collection our father maintained.

Do It In The Ocean started as Steve and I jamming in the studio in the soul-driven style of Stevie Wonder. It developed into an epic saga, of sorts, as the lyrics took shape around leaving civilization for the ocean.

The lyrics were triggered by a daydream built on loose memories. The bars on Main Street in Belmar NJ close around 1:30 a.m., often turning the Summer streets into a carnival. From there, it's a six block walk to the ocean through a beach house suburbia. All locals and many visitors have made that walk. The bars and lights gradually cross-fade with ocean waves.

There are always a collection of late-night wanderers on the beach, all with a different story. But they all have one thing in common- they chose to spend that exact time with their backs to the land. The nighttime shoreline is a close manifestation of "the edge," and even wandering near it can be empowering.

Cool Facts
The cover art for In The Ocean is a painting by close friend Jay Alders called Burning Inspiration. This song features a short soundscape right after the first chorus (@01:12) that puts you in the painting. Stare at the cover art while you listen, and enjoy.

Lifeguard tournaments are a local oceanfront community tradition. Around ten different municipalities convene after hours to showcase their crews' most athletic members for friendly (however intense) competitions. Swimming, running, kayaking, boarding and rowing are all common events. Both Steve and Dave have competed in the Monmouth County tournaments.

The last few seconds of the song has a few voices. One is drummer Colin saying he dug that take. Another is Dave saying "alright..." That was the beginning of some dialog about a monstrous spider that found its way into the studio. We discovered that we left the tapes rolling later on and decided to leave just a second in.

Key Phrase
"All of what's imagined is in-between dreams"

Music and Lyrics (chords over lyrics)
A G F
Moonlight draws the sidewalk
A G F
How you lead me to my friends
A G F Dmaj7 Db
Wander to the ocean never ends
A G F
Lovers quietly talk
A G F
Others' thoughts transcend
A G F
Leave the world behind me
D7 Db
Turn me on to the sea

F#m
It's about where we've been
B
And where we're going
F#m
And it ain't no sin
B
To not be knowing
A
Once we begin
B
We keep it going
F#m E D
That's why we do it in the ocean
C#m D E
For its sweet motion


Crawling back onto land
The waves, they reach for me
Flowing through the soft sand peacefully
Pale moon on the ocean
What's your mystery
Your inviting motion
Waves me back to the sea

[chorus]

[chromatic climb: B to F]

Bb F#
All of what's imagined is in-between dreams
Bb F#
What's impossible isn't what it seems

F#m
It's about where we've been
B
And where we're going
F#m
And it ain't no sin
B
To not be knowing
A
Once we begin
B
We keep it going
F#m E D
That's why we do it in the ocean
C#m Bm C#m D E
For its * * * *

Daydreamer

Music by David Fowler

Arranged and performed by Echo Movement

Behind the Song
Whoever said dreaming should be left to the sleepers? Why should they get all the fun? Besides, daydreaming is a lot closer to the ever-desired lucid dream.

Cool Facts
Steve isn't singing in tongues...that's the verse played in reverse during the horn bridge.

The bassline is a vamp directly inspired by dub legend King Tubby.

The whiney keyboard should be a warm and familiar sound- it's a sine wave with portamento ("slides" the notes together) that first appeared on a legendary 80's synthesizer, the Yamaha DX7. It's been used by everyone from Dr. Dre to Sublime.

Brain scans show that areas of the brain used to solve complex problems are activated while daydreaming (ref - sciencedaily.com, read the article here).

Key Phrase
"I look as though I listen, but you never know."

Music and Lyrics (chords over lyrics)
[Bb Ab]

Daydreamer
All I do is drift away
I'm just a daydreamer
You look at me as if to say

I like to drive my body set to cruise control
I look as though I listen, but you never know
So why I say goodbye just as you say hello
I'm playing golf with aliens down in Mexico

Gravity High

Music by David Fowler

Arranged and performed by Echo Movement

Behind the Song
This vibey follow-up to Fifteen Minutes originally had full lyrics and melodies. Matt laid down the oboe track, followed by Justin putting in the trumpet solo, and the last piece of the puzzle was Dan on classical guitar. Once all those tracks were in, we decided to let them do the talking.

The term gravity high could refer to several things. We wont tell you exactly what was running through our minds at the time, but ponder the phrase, if you haven't already.

Cool Facts
Matthew Lepek, Echo's sax player, is a sick oboe player. He graduated in 2010 with his masters in multiple woodwind instruments.

Dan's forte is classical guitar. Ask him to play a classical piece when you see him. If he says he doesn't have a guitar with him, rest assured he's lying, and we encourage you to provoke him with verbal insults.

Music (chords only)

Body: Cm Db
Refrain: G Ab G

Fifteen Minutes

Music and Lyrics by David Fowler

Arranged and performed by Echo Movement

Behind the Song
It was the worst dry spell for bud in my town that I can remember. Miraculously, my friend Pete (yes, the same Pete from No Need To Worry) called and invited me over for some bingers. Well, I got a bit too friendly with the gravity bong and was marooned on his sofa for two hours. I felt like a kid who ate ice cream too fast.

Regardless, this song is about that excited car ride to his house...that pure elation when something unexpected comes through. It was a rush so deep that it temporarily redefined my sense of moderation- just the way I wanted it.

Cool Facts
I wrote the original chorus melody while listening to country music.

The original lyrics were "fifteen minutes 'till I get real high." Steve felt it was a bit too forward, and we ultimately agreed on something more chill.

Key Phrase
"I may not see the wind...but I see what it does to the trees."

Music and Lyrics (chords over lyrics)
[horn line: Bb Eb F Bb]

Bb
My buddy just called
He said, "come on by"
I got fifteen minutes till a positive sigh
Eb
Been searching all day, but the town's been dry
Bb
He's got the gravity packed to make my third eye awry
F
Ain't got no money, but there's no need to buy
Eb Gb
My brother's got me covered on personal supply
Bb
My buddy just called
He said, "come on by"
I got fifteen minutes till a positive sigh

Bb G
Hey kids, life sucks when you got no bucks
Ebmaj7 F
No girl, no car, no job, no luck
Bb G
"When it rains, it pours," in life I learned
Ebmaj7 F
And when the sun is shining, yeah, you might get burned

Eb D
But it's not a sin to get off my knees
Eb D
Rising tides help me back to the seas
Eb D
I may not see the wind, may not see the breeze
Eb F
But I see what it does to the trees

My mind just called
He said, "come on by"
It's been fifteen minutes since a positive sigh
Been searching for a grip on a slippery slide
It's been fifteen hits and I'm alarmingly high
The gravity's kicked, I think I lost my eye
Got a cookie in my pocket and I don't know why
And so I hear horns falling from the sky
It's been fifteen minutes