About "Bliss"

I was hanging out with a buddy of mine recently, and he brought up the song "Bliss" on Synchromism. He was wondering why that track in particular didn't seem to "go anywhere; it just sort of stays the same throughout." I explained that "Bliss" doesn't go anywhere because that's the exact point of the song. It's about being in the moment.

"Bliss" is slice-of-life. It's a snapshot of one of those perfect spaces in time where you realize, "Life is good." At that particular moment, you have no worries or troubles; you have no demands, nowhere to be, nothing in particular to do...everything is settled. When I was explaining the tone of the track to my friend MoFo (who also designed the cover art for "Bliss"), I told her something like, "Imagine one of those perfect Sunday mornings, when you don't have to be at work, your house is completely clean, you have no homework or any other thing to do, all of your responsibilities are met, you're well rested, you're not hungry, you're not thirsty, you're not anything; you have your favorite pair of jeans on, you're relaxing, but you have the energy to do anything...and it's a beautiful day outside." I think she captured the vibe of "Bliss" perfectly in the artwork.

In a sense, "Bliss" is really zen-like in its refusal to become or accomplish anything and its state of "simply being." My guitar never really falls into a repetitive groove; it just sort of dreamily floats around the beat and bassline. I took some inspiration from jazz on this one by refusing to follow musical conventions. I didn't break the song into sections or add a chorus. Instead, the composition is just one continuous thought: in-the-moment and free-form. In fact, my guitar part, from beginning to end, is all one take...and it's actually the very first take. I didn't go back and overdub certain sections; I left it all alone. I thought the carefree meandering of my guitar was perfect the way it was: delightful in its simplicity.

There are actually some changes going on throughout the track, but they're very, very subtle -- layers of synths mostly, and a little guitar strumming and rhythmic additions. But I kept the changes slight in order to keep the musical focus on the rhythm section. I really liked the bassline loop I came up with; and, since I had a good friend of mine, The Specialist, doing all of the drum machine programming, I wanted to highlight his contribution. That's why you hear all of the other instruments mixed a little behind the drums.