31 December 2003
Happy New Year!

21 October 2003
An interview with Jeff and Marc.

Recently, Jeff Slate, the bassist and leader of the badge, and guitarist Marc Teamaker sat down to review the band's new CD “Calling Generation Mojo” track by track:

Calling Generation Mojo
Jeff: I wanted this song to have that universal feel; that “c'mon everybody” vibe. Marc and I put our heads together when it was nearly there and it just fell into place. Even though I know we're not really doing anything truly new I just don't think any rock and roll bands out there are doing the peace and love thing. I'm happy to take up that mantel.
Marc: I was very happy to be able to contribute to this piece. Jeff came in with a good 95 percent of the music and a good amount of the lyrics. We had fun just throwing out lines. I'm glad some of mine stuck.

It Girl
Jeff: Everything is so over-marketed today, it's just repulsive how spoon-fed we are as consumers. I was actually thinking of that old MTV show House Of Style when I wrote this, but the sentiment fits today more than ever. Whomever the camera is pointing at is the It Girl, and every kid out there wants to be her. Or him, for that matter. Just wanting to be famous for the sake of fame has reached epidemic proportions in our society today. This song just points to how superficial that all is.

Dawning Of A New Day
Jeff: What can I say, I found what I was looking for and saw the light. But this song has also taken on a bit of a life of its own. A young kid came up to me at one of our UK gigs and said “That song's the new Wonderwall.” While I hate to foist that on the public, I was certainly flattered. That's just a level of craftsmanship that every songwriter is happy to achieve once and a while.

Join The World
Marc: My attempt at writing a 3 or 4 chord song. Also, I wanted to do something stylistically that fit with Jeff's songs and the vibe of the album generally. It's basically a reaction to over analyzing life; the Monkey Mind in full swing. C'mon baby, let's just relax. Let's take a break and through that exercise we can really come alive.

Hole In my Head
Marc: Where everything's swallowed. Not being able to get started. Another in a long list of “frustration” songs.

Together
Jeff: This is probably the purest, most positive love song I've ever written. None of that sad, emo “Oh, baby what have I done and where have you gone” crap. Just a simple sentiment and a simple production. I woke up early one beautiful morning and wrote it and went back to bed, almost as though I'd dreamt it.

All For Love
Jeff: I had this track very early in the making of the record with just nonsense words. Sometimes those are the best, but these weren't. Then in a really short period of time the world lost George Harrison and Raphael Rudd (note: the composer/arranger/pianist/harpist that Jeff met through Pete Townshend and frequently played with in the 90s). This track became my little message to them. George loved Krishna and Buddhism and Raph loved Meher Baba, and so this was my way of tipping my hat to those philosophies while also saying goodbye to these people who had a really distinct impact on my life and work.

Reach Out, I'll Be There
Marc: What a bitch to sing!
Jeff: That just happened by accident between takes with me just ripping it out on my Tele with just drums. It came together really quickly and then I just forgot about it. When we were doing playbacks everyone just turned to me and said “You're crazy not to put that on the record!”

Where Luv Will Take You
Jeff: This song started life as a live track that was never really finished. Then I got involved in this indie picture that fell apart, but it allowed me the time and inclination to work on this track as the theme song for it. The director wanted “white guys in a garage playing their own version of Shaft.” After I turned in the piece (without lyrics) he decided to go instead for “70s Italian porn music” as his score. (And shortly after that his project fell apart.) I thought, “thank you very much” and took my piece back and finished it off properly. My buddy (the reggae artist) Martei Korley adds a really unique background vocal to it. He doesn't “do rock,” so his take on the backing vocal vibe is just out of left field. And the ridiculous lines about the Promised Land and keeping keepin' on? Well, that's just my nod to Dylan. About as veiled as they come though, I guess.

Shoot Me Down
Marc: The classic theme of brushing yourself off and getting back in the race. That's what life is all about, right? Plus, it gave me the chance to juxtapose Rasputin with Muhammad Ali. From a songwriting standpoint it doesn't get much better than that kind of wordplay.
Jeff: This one is practically Marc all by himself. But I pushed for that really tight, almost claustrophobic sound of early 70s white soul and I really like the way it turned out. I wouldn't be surprised if the next record went in this direction; live and tight.

I'm Not Your Man
Marc: A sad number about not connecting with the one you love; as simple as that.
Jeff: This is probably my favorite song on the record. Marc played me his demo and I just said “Perfect!” What more could we have done to it, really?

Tick-Tock
Jeff: This is an unsent letter to an old, estranged friend, really. I rewrote a song we'd written together as a pointed message that he was no longer a welcome part of my world. Is it How do You Sleep? enough for you? Well, I meant it when I wrote it and cut the basic track. And it's a one-take scratch vocal that captured my emotion. When we were finishing things up I thought I'd “fix” it, but I ended up leaving that first take because enough time had passed that I had just moved on and wanted the past to be the past and just felt I couldn't summon up that same emotion. Of course I hadn't moved on enough to leave the track off the record, so the message is still an important one to me I guess.

Telephone Line
Jeff: I walked into a club one night and saw my old partner from this band really tearing into this track. I'd always loved it and thought I was the only person in the world who was still fixated on it as a piece of art. So it was one of the first things I worked on for this record. I never had any intention of singing it, but my demo vocal had something that really captured what I wanted. This was also an opportunity to do a stripped down version of a truly beautiful song that really shows off the perfection in its craft, while at the same time allowing me to tip my hat to Jeff Lynne and do a small nod to him. And the quiet little George Harrison-esque slide at the end was just a little rehearsal thing that I left on as one last goodbye to that beautiful spirit. Fitting that it's on this track, though.