Star (2003)

President Gas started out as a covers band, a chance for a group of old friends from previous originals bands to have a weekly jam—but that didn’t last long. Soon enough we were working on new songs because, well, it’s just so much more fun creating something new than interpreting someone else’s songs!

We’d been playing for maybe four years or so when we decided that if we have a bunch of songs we may as well record them. And so our debut ‘Star’ long player came together.

The album was recorded at Vision Studios on the hill overlooking Wellington airport sometime around 2001/2002 (not sure of the actual dates). It was recorded with the band playing live in the studio over a three-day period with Phil Hornblow engineering. I remember Paul spent an entire day doing leads and overdubs, almost crippling his hands.

Barry had recently fallen off a ladder and had also slipped carrying his rig up the path to the studio the night before the session. He went to the chiropractor and dosed up on pain killers before heading to the studio…and had to stand up all day!

We probably spent a day on vocals after which we decamped to Barry’s basement to start keyboard and other overdubs before relocating to Biff Studios in Petone for the majority of the post-production work.

Hallelujah Shoes opens the album in true 90’s rock style. I’d been playing around with the somewhat angular riff for a while looking for a song to pair it with. F#m is one of my favourite keys and I love the chord pattern of the verse. Paul came up with the lovely flowing lines over top of the verse and it all fell into place. We added the LFO organ later as an intro/outro. We made a fun video directed by Shane Bartle at the time, and I did an acoustic version recorded during Covid lockdown in 2020.

The album continues into the more groovy Give a Little Love, a funky little throwaway track that doesn’t outstay its welcome.

More Life is an interesting 2 ½ minute song, built around a metal-like riff and showcasing Pat’s amazing, almost abstract, drumming style. The little keyboard line that starts the song and continues into the verses was a happy accident. I had been playing around with various keyboard sounds but not found anything I liked, but one night playing back the track it triggered another midi channel and played the sound you hear from somewhere else in the studio (maybe a Logic software synth?). I quickly recorded it and incorporated into the track. Gold.

She is pure pop built around a chord pattern that I’d had for years. One of those things musicians play absentmindedly when noodling around. This one turned into a little pop gem.

With an almost punk aesthetic Neva Letta Go closes “side one” of the record. With massed backing vocal lines at the end the song builds into a crescendo in just over three minutes. I don’t think we’ve played this song since the recording – don’t know why as it’s fun to play.

Wolf Song had a remarkable genesis. It came to me almost in its entirety while waiting for a train at a Sydney station. Totally out of the blue it entered my head and I was desperate to retain it long enough to reach home and work it through on the guitar. It was like when sometimes a song comes to you in a dream and consciously your brain thinks “I should remember this, it’s good”, but of course it slips away. This one didn’t.

Skyscraper is a very old song and has proved to be a popular over the years. I wrote this in London based on riff by a guy called Bill Chrichton who I was playing with at the time. Bill had a little studio in a spare room in his house in Walthamstow. I was living in Maida Vale so it was quite a journey for us to get together! We worked on a few songs but Skyscraper was the one to make it out of the primordial swamp so to speak. It’s a pretty straightforward song, almost Stones-like in its simplicity. Such a great riff.

I’m particularly proud of the organ work on this song. Recorded in one take in Barry’s basement on his Korg Wavestation, at times it’s completely mental and I’m not sure I could ever reproduce it.

I had been reading a wonderful book called ‘World to Come’ by Lloyd Geering and I thought it was a great title. The lyrics are only tangentially related to the concepts of the book but this is an old favourite of mine. Again, it’s very much a song of the 90’s, perhaps grunge influenced. I particularly like Pat’s fills before each chorus – they build in complexity each time they’re repeated. He’s such an interesting, technical drummer much like his musical hero Neil Peart.

And to the pure pop of Xmas Song which was an almost throwaway tune that we persevered with. It’s a schmaltzy little confection and the title came about before the lyrics were written when Pat said it reminded him of ‘Last Christmas’ by George Michael. I guess it’s kinda in the same vein? Hmmm. Anyway I threw in line “you left me cold and freezing…last Christmas” as a nod to this.

The album’s title track Star went through a few iterations. I’d had the chorus for a while and paired it with a few verses and until this one stuck. The verse is in 6/4 time which is a little strange but with Paul’s sustained gat lines and Barry’s grooving bass it sat together nicely. The song is of course about struggling musicians trying to get a break (a common theme it seems). Funnily enough I don’t think we’ve ever played the song since recording it, the groove being hard to reproduce with subsequent drummers.

The final number Closing Time started off as a quiet, piano led, number but expanded over time to become a Floyd-ish piece with Paul’s beautiful slide work. Barry helped it groove along with a superb bassline that makes it move so nicely. It has one of my favourite lyrics “Hold my head under the water / Feel its icy flow / Feel the lifeforce pounding in my ear / Always wanted to know how that feels”. Putting aside the repetition of the word “feel” it’s so evocative.

Being 2003 we released the album independently on CD, which essentially was the only means of distributing music at that time. Ten years later we remixed/remastered the album and released it again on the now available streaming services.

And just like that twenty years have passed. Skyscraper is the only song remaining in our current live set…so it’s lucky we recorded them 😊.

President Gas
May 2023