Q: What is your background in music?
I started playing piano as a child and then became serious at age
thirteen playing both guitar and bass. I played in various bands
including backing up other artists. I have performed 800+
concerts in 15 countries. I began writing songs when I was fifteen
years old and have written 500+ songs, almost all of which I have
recorded. I also worked extensively in the recording industry as a
producer, engineer and studio musician, having produced 50+ albums and
contributed to many more. Most of my career has been focused on
original music but I have also played in my share of cover bands.
Q: Who are your musical influences?
I am huge Beatles fan like everyone else. My
favorite classic rock artists are Steely Dan, Cheap Trick, The Doobie
Brothers and Dwight Twilley. I have listened to progressive
rock since I was fifteen so my prog-rock influences are Pink Floyd, Kansas, Yes,
King Crimson and Opeth. In the last year the primary music I have
listened to is Opeth -- which most people are not familiar with but they
are from Sweden and have been around for 20 years. They are both
excellent musicians as technicians but also create truly beautiful music.
My new album is not as heavy as Opeth (as they are a death metal band that
plays progressive rock) but more in the mode of Pink Floyd. Many
have told me that my guitar style is reminiscent of David Gilmour.
Q: I note that you are primarily a guitar player, so who
are your major guitar influences?
There are many. Jeff Beck, Jeff Baxter and Larry Carlton
(Steely Dan), Billy Gibbons (ZZ Top), David Gilmour (Pink Floyd), Eric
Johnson whom I consider the greatest all-round guitar player in the world,
Barry Bailey (Atlanta Rhythm Section), Lenny Breau (Canada's great jazz
musician), Brian May (Queen), Carlos Santana and, of course,
Jimi Hendrix.
Q: What do you consider to be the most distinctive aspect of your guitar
style?
What keeps me playing with other artists is my versatility, in that I
play numerous styles (rock, blues, jazz, country, funk, metal, reggae,
etc.) reasonably well. But in terms of style, I suppose it is my
thematic, melodic, lyrical guitar solos and my extensive use of guitar
harmonies. I also tend to play many things "outside of the box" in
that I am prone to play a solo with a greater abstract flavor than most
guitar players. That's why I like someone like Jeff Baxter
so much -- as he plays so much totally different than what most guitar
players tend to play.
One last point I would like to make about my style is that I tend to
approach many issues of life -- especially as it pertains to performance
-- with what I call The Bruce Lee Approach. I am a
big Bruce Lee fan from my youth and have seen all his movies many times
and own them all. Bruce was a master of many styles of martial
arts including defining his own style call Jeet Kune Do. Typically in a
Bruce Lee movie, when Bruce was facing a major opponent, he would let
them "make the first move" to determine their style. If they used
Karate then he used a different style such as Kung Fu. If they
used Kung Fu then he used American-Style Boxing or Judo or Karate or
some other style his opponent had not mastered.
So in my style I tend to do something distinctly different than what
other guitar players would do or are likely to do (if another guitar
player is playing). If he plays jazz then I play rock or country
licks. If he plays rock then I play jazz. If he plays rock
and jazz then I play funk. In my opinion most guitar players tend
to over play. They throw far too many notes into the solo as
though there were a reward for the most notes. I consider this
type of playing to be athletic but not musical -- and my interest and
goal is in making good music. Sometimes people ask me what I mean
by musical -- since shouldn't all sound in music be musical? But,
no, that is not what I am saying. To be musical is among other
things, to not be particularly athletic. Music is not the Olympics
or the Super Bowl. It's art. There are drummers much more
capable technically speaking than Ringo Starr and yet Ringo is
one of, if not the most musical drummer ever. Ringo was not trying
to impress you with his technique. Ringo was "serving the
song" by making it more listenable and "musical."
I strive to be musical especially in my guitar playing. Musical
guitar solos can be listened to many, many times without becoming boring
or pass� or predictable -- but instead memorable and contribute to the
overall song.
Q: What prompted you to create this album called "brain
cell"?
I determined that I wanted to create a progressive rock album with a
strong concept that tied all the pieces together. However, I was not
attempting to tell a cohesive story such as a rock opera but rather explore
various maladies to be found in a
mental hospital. The working title for the project was The Seven
Wonders Of The Will to identify the power of the human mind
especially as effected by illness.
From there brain cell evolved to a visit to a 1950s
style mental hospital that is dilapidated and inefficient where we explore
the various illnesses and issues of the patients.
One patient has narcissistic personality disorder
(Alice)
while another is
paranoid (Nothing More).
The most "serious" patient suffers from a
delusion where he thinks he is king and his hospital room is his throne
room (The Kingdom In Your Mind). One patient implores his visitor
to aid him in escaping (Call And No Answer) while another patient may be
incorrectly diagnosed
(Maybe I'm Crazy)
and not ill.
I deliberately set out to create an album that was not
commercial in the traditional sense and contained music that lovers of
progressive rock (including myself) respect and appreciate. Where a
typical commercial song may be three minutes in length and 2.5 minutes
of that is singing, I deliberately created six to nine minute songs,
still with 2.5 minutes of singing but the remainder as instrumental
sections.
Q: Why choose the topic of mental illness?
I have always found the human mind intriguing. I think people are
fascinating, especially in how they think. I find the science
behind the study of the human mind intriguing and yet, it is such a soft
science (compared to so many other fields of study), that there is much
interpretation imposed as compared to other disciplines.
I question many of the conclusions of modern psychology and psychiatry.
For example, in the case of many of the drugs that are available for
mental illness, scientists do not necessarily understand why certain
drugs have certain impacts while others do not. Or why a drug
impacts one patient in a particular way and does not impact another
patient at all. Apparently, their lack of understanding does not
inhibit them from prescribing them.
There is a well-known and highly influential psychological test called the MMPI
(Minnesota Multi-Phasic Personality Inventory) where psychologists
assessed a large number of patients, who also underwent a true/false
test with hundreds of questions, which forms the MMPI database.
Subsequently when "John Doe" takes the MMPI, the results
(John's "inventory") are fed into a
computer to determine whose answers in the MMPI database are his closest
match. If their test results are close "enough" then John Doe is
assumed to suffer the same mental problems as their assessed counterpart
in the MMPI
database. Of course, there are numerous weaknesses to this.
First it assumes that the original patients were correctly assessed by
the psychologists who gathered the data. What if the psychologist
was wrong or mistaken? How can such an evaluation fail to be, at least,
somewhat if not highly subjective and therefore prone to error? Most psychologists examinations
are based on statements given by their patients but what if the patient
is not telling the truth or is mistaken? What a patient reports is
subjective and does not necessarily accurately present what is going on
within their mind. Is that included in their assessment? I
doubt it.
Psychological assessments are complex and multi-faceted because humans
are complex and multi-faceted. Human beings are not static -- so
that person maybe assessed in a particular way on one day and yet be
assessed much differently on another day. The MMPI database
suffers from inherent lacking reliability.
When matching answers, how close is close "enough"? What if John
Doe did not answer honestly? The MMPI attempts to address this by
asking similar questions repeatedly. However, it does not require
a genius to recognize the similarity of questions and, therefore, answer
them similarly. The assumption that lies are inconsistent only
relates to the highly unsophisticated.
One questions attempts to detect paranoia by asking John Doe if
he perceives that someone is out to get him. Most people who are
paranoid always believe someone is out to get them whether it is true or
not. However, there are some people who are in a situation where
someone is out to get them. It is not paranoia but fact. The MMPI
will likely deem John Doe as paranoid if he answered "true" to this
question, regardless of this distinction.
Unfortunately, the MMPI is frequently used to evaluate people whether in
consideration for possibly employment or as evidence of "lacking
character" in a court trial.
Like many psychologists I think every human is, at least, a little
damaged and, therefore, mentally ill. Something is wrong or
"broken" with the way they think, even if minor, and if given enough
time unchecked and unresolved, it could lead to much more serious mental
issues. Most of us are not so damaged that we cannot go to work or
school every day -- but that does not mean we do not have maladies.
We all catch colds or other infectious diseases, we all need to have
a doctor check out some sort of malady in our physical bodies and yet
most of us never expect to need any help with our mental faculties.
I suspect that we are even more susceptible to mental maladies than
physical ones.
So I chose to explore these issues in an artistic and reflective manner,
which is rarely if ever done. Pink Floyd wrote songs about
the progressive insanity of their original leader, Syd Barrett.
"Dark side of the moon" is a British term for going insane
-- for to be on "the dark side of the moon" is to have lost one's
sanity. Even then their exploration is focused on one specific
real person (as with their songs Wish You Were Here and
Shine On You Crazy Diamond). That is the closest I have
encountered to my project -- and I am, of course, a big fan of Pink
Floyd and particularly David Gilmour.
brain cell concerns many issues related to mental
illness and different forms of mental illness. For example, the
song Under Restraint
is specifically about a patient who is restrained to their bed by
shackles. Although the patient does not like or enjoy the
confinement, they are past the point of initial anger and resentment,
having become accustomed to the confinement. They use the "power"
of their mind to imagine that they could look at their own image in a
mirror -- rather than be strapped to a bed -- and then what they may
discover about themselves. I use the word "may" because until they
can actually be released to get up out of bed and look in a mirror, they
can only speculate on how that experience may impact them.
I must add that art means different things to different people and
therefore one perception is not necessarily the definitive perception.
As a creator I deliberately leave aspects vague so as to allow the
listener's own imagination to interact. For example, I have stated
that my intent was to write about patient who is under restraint but I
deliberately avoided stating why they were restrained, especially for a
long time period. Maybe they seek to do damage to themselves.
Or maybe they are seeking to escape and could be a danger to society if
permitted to leave. Or maybe the staff supervising them is
vindictive and is "punishing" them or seeking to intimidate them.
These are, but a few of many possible scenarios I leave to the listener.
Q: Why progressive rock (versus other styles)?
Well, I have always been a fan of progressive rock, not only of the
style but I appreciate the fans of progressive rock as an audience more
devoted to the genre, more knowledgeable and more discerning in what
they choose to listen to than the generic rock fan. They are very
sophisticated listeners and many of them are musicians themselves.
Progressive rock appreciates songs that "take you somewhere" as though
you have been on a journey. This is usually achieved through
greater length (than popular music) and a series of musical changes
either in tempo, key, feel or structure, much like classical music tends
to have movements and then often times eventually return to prior
themes. I enjoy all these values and find other styles relatively
predictable and less satisfying.
Q: Were the songs difficult to create?
Not really. Once the concept was clearly
defined then it was relatively easy to write the songs. However,
unlike some albums I did not write all the songs first and then begin
recording. I wrote a song and typically finished recording the
song before going onto write and then record the next one. I wrote
five songs intended for this album but for various reasons elected not to
include them although this album is almost a double album as it has less
than 5 seconds left from filling an entire 80-minute CD.
I re-wrote several of the songs several times. The
song Maybe I'm Crazy
started off something like Dire Straits' Sultans Of Swing
but then evolved into a shuffle. Then from a
shuffle to a true "stripper beat". Each time the feel changed so did
the lyrics. I then tried recording the song in three different keys.
Life is a mystery, everything absurd
We all have moments we can't put into words
(From the song Maybe I'm
Crazy by Donnie Gossett)
The first track was originally titled All Seems Lost and
had completely different lyrics. My son, Justin Gossett, was a constant
influence on the album and provided much of the artistic direction.
He suggested to me that this song was not as clearly related to
the concept of the rest of the album of mental illness so I should
consider re-writing the lyrics for greater cohesion. Initially, I
resisted as the project was a great amount of work but then I eventually
determined that my original vocal recording was too restrained in style
and should be performed stronger. Since I was going to re-record
the vocals anyway, I took Justin's advice and also re-wrote the lyrics,
now titled Alice.
Q: How long did the creation process take?
Well I started in September 2010 and finished
writing and initial recording by February 2011. I then spent several
weeks improving and tweaking various aspects of the recording.
Q. One of the distinctive aspects of this album is that
it is almost entirely performed by you singing all the vocals and playing
all the instruments. Was it a difficult process to master so much
territory?
I started as a child on piano taking piano lessons
along side my other siblings. When I was thirteen years old I began
to play bass guitar and within months also began to play the guitar.
In my early twenties I bought my first drum kit and learned to play as a
studio drummer where the emphasis is on solid beats and feel rather than
busy fills and solos. And somewhere along the way I also began
singing.
My son, Justin Gossett, co-wrote one of the songs with
me (Oblivion -- a song about
electro-shock therapy) and played the arpeggio guitars (both acoustic
and electric). My long time friend, Mark Cole played the sax solos
on Magic. Everything else I
performed and wrote myself.
Q: Were all these songs written recently?
All but one. The music and about half the lyrics of
Three Reasons
was written when I was sixteen years old. One day I was working on
ideas and recalled a similar idea in this song -- then titled "A
Man Looks To The Sky" (which is the opening line). I began
to play the song but could not recall all the lyrics. Ironically,
I had no problem recalling the music. I thought to myself "rather
than doing a song like this, why not do this song?" So I wrote
additional lyrics to fill on the missing lines and recorded the whole
thing rather quickly.
Q: Tell us about the track The
Day After.
My first intent was to write something like
Stairway To Heaven although it evolved into this highly emotional
presentation. My idea was of someone who attempted to commit suicide
by slitting their wrists but was rescued before they succumbed.
Subsequently, they have been taken into custody at the mental hospital for observation
and to prevent them from hurting themselves any further. Then the
next day, someone close to them (a family member or close friend)
comes to visit and the song presents the "patient" side of a
conversation -- behind glass over a phone. Each verse
begins calmly at an emotional distance but as they
begin to express, their emotions become more openly exposed and eventually
leads to rage. This process is repeated for each verse to the climax
at the end.
When I wrote the song I was concerned that the second
verse may be perceived as flippant as the patient states "They may have
saved my life but could not save my shirt" due to the blood stains on it.
My exposure to people in this state is that they are both detached and yet
able to come in contact with their emotions at a moment's notice. So
this is a detached observation made at a point where the patient is highly
aware of the concern of their visitor and yet life's inherent
idiosyncrasies.
When I sang the ending I was not certain as to what I
would sing either musically or lyrically so I literally looked over the
previous verses to spontaneously create the words. The first verse
focus is on how the patient is sorry so that was the first line.
Then the second verse was how they are tired so that became the second
line but then the third verse which is presently with much more vivid
emotion is about anger so I sang "I'm sorry and I'm tired but most of all
I'm angry..."
I was inspired by Alanis Morisette's song You Oughta Know
as an expression of rage but put that rage into the context of
depression leading to a suicide attempt. I believe Alanis broke new
ground with her song and I attempted to also break new ground in
expressing real human emotions.
Q: Tell us about
The Same Old Line.
I wanted to write something that identified rage with the corruption of
our system -- particularly in light of the financial collapse of recent
years. So I started with accapella voices singing as slaves may
have in the 19th Century -- to identify how long the working class has
been "slaving for the man". Then next is an instrumental section
almost like modern dance music -- but is meant to demonstrate the factor
with marching and beating an anvil to the beat of the song. Then I
use recordings I sampled myself back in 2008 of a singer from Abbotsford
named Shelley. I then play these samples like an instrument using
various sampling/tuning software.
Then the lyrics start with identifying disillusionment with the
corporate system. Each chorus brings back the marching and the
anvil -- to remind us of how little has changed. The song is quite
long with 3 full verses and 3 full bridges finally building to a
cacophony of layered guitars and voices. You can hear the famous
sample from Gordon Gecko ("Greed is good!")
from the Oliver Stone film, Wall Street then followed by
"Drill, Baby, Drill" as spoken by
Michael Steele, the former head of the Republican Party speaking at their 2008
convention. Thanks to my friend, Steve Riva, for his many cool
suggestions for this song.
Q: We'd like to know about your guitars. What can you tell us?
It depends on what I am seeking to accomplish but generally on this
album, I played my 1973 Gibson Les Paul Deluxe for most of the
"screaming" leads and power chords as on the heavy guitars for
The Day After.
For mellow clean parts, I used my new Squire Telecaster
(which I acquired during the recording process). For the guitar
solo on Under Restraint
I used Justin's PRS SE Mikael Ackerfeldt Signature Model
but for most of the other parts I used my Ibanez.
I like the Ibanez because of its wider neck, 5-position pick-up selector
(enabling me to get Fender-style out-of-phase sounds along with decent
screaming like the Les Paul) and its 24 frets. Most players do not
use those upper frets but I do. For acoustic guitar I used my 1975
Ovation Balladeer acoustic/electric taking the signal both off the
guitar pick-up (which is ancient by modern standards) and also from a
microphone. For bass guitar I used a 2001 Mexican-made Fender
Precision bass although I also used much keyboard bass.
I typically played my guitar with both a direct signal off the guitar
and through the POD (Version 2.0) but generally took the clean signal
and put it through a plug-in. I love the many new and varied
plug-ins which are available now even though they require a significant
amount of processing power.
Q: You have produced many different artists in the past. What is
it like to produce yourself? Is it substantially different than
producing someone else?
Yes, it is. Typically when you are recording an artist, they are
performing in the studio behind glass while you are in the control room,
carefully critiquing their performance. Your focus is on listening
while the artist's attention is on creating their performance.
They depend on the producer to critique it. This is especially
true in the case of vocals -- as their are unlimited nuances and ways of
phrasing words along with a range of tones and vocal techniques to
produce the sound -- not to mention the mechanics of timing and
intonation. It is substantially harder to critique your
performance while you are creating it than when only listening.
Over time I have become quite accustomed to it but I must also rely on
playback to determine if I achieved the performance I was striving for.
In the modern age with so much technology to assist in the recording
process, there is a tendency to record the smallest possible segment of
a performance, seeking to perfect it and then move onto the next
segment. With vocals this can be a single phrase. However,
oftentimes continuity or the feeling of a recording is compromised as
seeking for perfect intonation loses some of the natural feeling that
would occur in a more spontaneous and less contrived performance.
Neil Young says that the first two takes are almost always the best and
if it is not capture by then, it won't be (in that session). Mr.
Young speaks a truth. However, that also fits within his style
which is deliberately loose. As creators of modern recordings we
need to use the best of the tools that are available without losing the
emotion and humanity of creating music with purity.
Q: Is there much distinction between performing live as compared to
performing in the studio?
Yes, there is a very great distinction as they are very different
mediums. For the most part, the concert itself is a much more
controlled environment -- in that the audience experiences the music as
a group and is impacted by the group dynamics. The presentation,
whether in a small club or large concert arena, is controlled by the
artists (and those assisting putting on the show). If the artist
presents visuals (like Pink Floyd does, for example) then the whole
audience sees the same visuals. In contrast the studio itself is a
controlled environment but the audience usually listens to the music
alone (and not as a group) in unlimited environments. They could
be on a bus or bicycle, at the beach or in a bedroom, at a party or on
headphones. As an artist you do not know the environment they are
listening in. Live performance is a one time presentation.
The listener cannot press rewind. The audience does not know what
is going to happen next while the artist does (or at least has the
option to determine it). While a studio recording is entirely
predictable in that it will sound the same the next time as it did the
last.
Practically speaking, you can present things to an audience that could
work very well live but would seem tedious in a recording. You can
build dynamics live that could be very effective but be hard to listen
or follow in a studio recording. Then you can control or
manipulate the performance or only present the performance of your
choice with a studio recording. For example, you could hear an
awesome vocal performance that the artist simply cannot reproduce live
(such as Queen only performed small portions of
Bohemian Rhapsody live
as the complex operatic parts were simply the studio recording).
I believe in utilizing what works best for that medium. Usually they are
very different. For example, with guitar solos. Improvised
"bluesy" guitar solos work better live while in the studio, melodic
thematic "deliberate" solos generally work better.
Q: How did the tour-de-force song
The Kingdom
In Your Mind come to be?
A: My son, Justin Gossett, is an avid progressive rock listener
and researcher. One day he was discussing with me how the album In
The Court Of The Crimson King by King Crimson is
considered the first prog-rock album of all time and has such influence
to the present that it is near the top of the list of best prog-rock
album of all time (Number 3 I believe). He asked me if I was
familiar with the album, which I was as I listened to it when it first
came out and particularly was fond of the title track. Justin then
suggested to me that I should write a song for this album as inspired by
In The Court Of The Crimson King. He suggested it should be
long (it is over ten minutes which was unheard of when it was originally
released) and has many verses and transitions but after each transition
returns to the original theme.
My immediate response was "What a great idea!" I
then recalled the movie K-PAX which takes place in the
mental ward of a large New York hospital where one of the patients was
so delusional to think she was an aristocratic lady (and not merely a
patient) who took "gentlemen callers" in her "parlour" (which was her
private hospital room). I thought that it be cool to have patient
in this mental hospital who thought they were king and that this patient
was deluded that in order to discourage this patient from violence, the
hospital staff "played along" with his delusion by greeting him as
"Your Majesty" and suggesting he drink the "special elixir" (which
are his prescribed medications) so that he can be free to rule his
kingdom and not be sent back to the dungeon (the place where the meds
were forced into him). I wrote six verses and four major
instrumental movements that have tempo, meter and/or feel transitions
but then after each one they return to the original theme -- as though
returning to the kingdom -- The Kingdom In Your Mind.
I wrote the song with inspiration but it took me several weeks to record
it -- as it turned out -- it was one of the earliest tracks of the
album. Upon completing what I call Phase A -- the initial writing
and recording of the album, I determined that though it may be the best
song on the album, its production was the poorest as it did not seem as
clear and punch as I perceived it should be. So as I analyzed it I
realized that the song would sound better for my voice if sung in a
higher key -- so I raised the key -- which meant I had to re-record
almost all the parts. Unlike the first time of recording the song
where I recorded it as one long song, I recorded each tempo/feel
transition separately and then glued them altogether at the end.
Initially I had programmed the drums but decided that playing the drum
parts -- as a real drummer -- helps the parts to sound more musical (I
suppose that is the power of the intuitive mind over the conscious mind
-- another interesting mental quandary) so I played drums on the second
recording and I was much more pleased with how it sounded.
The first instrumental movement is faster tempo riff rock but then
reverts back to a Beatles or Queen-style theme. The
second movement is in 6/8 and is one of the rare keyboard solo moments
in the album. The third instrumental movement started off as more
metal with double kick drum but the middle part of that evolved into a
Hendrix tribute. The opening line of my guitar solo is taken
directly from Hendrix classic guitar solo from the Woodstock album --
where it slows down from Star-Spangled Banner and
Purple Haze into a cool laid-back blues -- which happens to be
my favorite Hendrix guitar solo (and the last song performed at the
Original Woodstock Festival) so I used this as a nod to one of my guitar
heroes. Then the last instrumental movement was intended to be a
solo guitar segment but eventually evolved as dual harmonies against a
sparse background.
Q: You have spoken much about guitar parts but little about keyboards.
What was their role in the album?
There is only one brief keyboard solo on the album
(The
Kingdom In Your Mind) but I made use of keyboards on almost every
track especially with the pad synth sound. I recorded the album
from September to March and during New Year's Eve of that period I saw
Foreigner live in concert. I very much enjoyed them and
while I was watching the concert I noted the frequent use of a pad synth
sound -- and realized that those guys more or less created that sound
and style -- especially as one of their original members (no longer in
the band) was also a founding member of King Crimson (Ian McDonald).
My own use of pad synth somehow made more sense to me after seeing them
as I chose it intuitively rather than necessarily recognizing that it is
in the great prog-rock tradition.
What I did use much in the album is organ as I am a big Kansas
fan. I superficially was aware of Kansas when they first emerged.
I have specific Studio of repairing a sound system in Nashville when
Dust In The Wind first came out as a single. I liked
what I heard but I did not immerse myself in their material at that
time. Years later a friend of mine named Arthur Klassen lent
me his Kansas catalogue to listen to and I loved it. Steve
Walsh is one of the great rock singers of all time -- and as typical
of a great talent, he makes it all seem easy. I also love his
organ playing as it is signature to the Kansas sound so I have quite a
bit of that through the album.
Q: I note that the album begins and ends with the same sound effect.
What is the meaning of that?
The sound effect you refer to is an Electro Cardiogram machine (known as
ECG or EKG). It monitors one's heartbeat with both a visual and
audio monitor. Rather than hearing the actual heart beating, the
EKG sounds a pulse of simple beats to represent the rhythm of the heart.
In the opening track, Alice, it
starts off with the "flat line" sound representing no life or end
of life as there is no heartbeat but then it starts to pulse
representing the heartbeat. I used a sample of a real EKG machine
but then I modified it to pulse at the tempo in synchronization with the
song with A note -- the same key that the song Alice is in.
Then it starts to play the opening arpeggio of the song and then
eventually is joined the band particularly acoustic guitars. Then
the last track, When It's
Over, is a song about euthanasia -- that is choosing to end
one's life usually due to unrecoverable illness. So that track
opens with a breathing machine in synchronization with the song.
Then at the end of the song, as the patient has gone under the
anesthetic we hear the EKG machine again but this time in the key of B.
It starts to pulse quickly as a warning that the patient's heart is not
beating and then flat lines -- representing that patient has reached end
of life. The use of sound effect in synchronization to the song is
a nod to Pink Floyd and particularly the track Money
from Dark Side Of The Moon.
Q: The album credits state that you played almost every instrumental
part and sang all the vocals. So what part did others play in this
album?
First of all, my son, Justin Gossett played a major role in
helping me define the album as a concept album about mental illness
within the progressive rock genre. We both have listened to much
Opeth in recent years and appreciate their quality and integrity
-- but Justin is the one who turned me onto Opeth. At one point,
Justin suggested I listen to another artist covering an Opeth song.
As soon as I listened I was inspired to create my own song -- which is
how much of the best music is created. However, the Opeth song
featured the strumming of acoustic guitars. I had my acoustic
guitar beside me but I had no guitar pick immediately available so I
began to play finger-style. Almost immediately the structure and
melody for Under Restraint came flowing out. On another occasion
Justin suggested I create something as inspired by the Opeth song
Face Of Melinda. I listen to the song and within moments
came up with When It's Over.
Now both songs sound much different than the Opeth songs that inspired
them but they are nonetheless influenced by them even as they have come
into their own.
I have two good friends named Myron Berg and Jon Brotherton
-- who are themselves mutual friends, that have given me much helpful
feedback to my music and recordings in recent years. As I
recorded each track I would send it to them for their feedback which was
always helpful. Sadly four months into this process of this
particular album (even though they had been providing this helpful
feedback for years), Myron was tragically killed in car accident which
also sent his wife and four children to the hospital. Myron was a
close friend for decades so his loss was quite a blow to me. There
was a period where I just was not up to working on the album.
Myron had been the single greatest supporter of my music in my entire
life but I realized that if Myron had not died, he certainly would have
wanted me to complete this album so the best way I could honor him and
his memory was to complete this project. After a period of
mourning which included putting together a band to play at his memorial,
as requested by Myron's widow, I returned to the project.
I had written and recorded a particular part to a song (ironically the
song When It's Over
-- which is about death) that I knew Myron would particularly
appreciate. However, I had a cold and waited till my voice was in
proper performance condition before recording the vocal before I played
the song for Myron's feedback. It was during this brief waiting
period that Myron died. I was not able to play him this part which
would have been meaningful to him because I had waited a few days.
One of the lessons I learned from this experience was the shortness of
life and to make the most of what you have while you can.
My brother, Michael Gossett and my best friend, Steve Riva,
also provided much helpful feedback and suggestions throughout the
project and I am grateful for their input. Steve considers
The Kingdom
In Your Mind as the best track of the album.
Originally the album was titled The Seven Wonders Of The Will
but my son, Jordan Gossett, hated the title. Instead he
suggested a better title, brain cell, which I used. I
particularly appreciate the double-meaning as our brains are filled with
cells but also that within the custody of the mental hospital the brain
is a cell.
There are, of course, many others who contribute to my life and music
such as Brandon Gossett, Kelsey Gossett, Ben Karlstrom, Leon Rogers,
Tony Chamberlist, Glenda Rae, Mike Taylor, Victor Wells, Brent Rogers,
Billy Shears, Rene Worst and others.
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