WITCH WATCH Underground/Overground Track 2 Emily Empathy

Track two finds us at Emily Empathy. A song demoed in 2016 for the never officially completed 2nd Murder Shoes album. It was part of a bunch of songs that were freed up once that band split. Anna put vocals on it that same year and it had been tossed around as a song we'd re-track with Austin and Rory for our debut, but alas, our budget only allowed for eight songs to be recorded with Knol "mutt" Tate, and so we ended up choosing songs that we could learn in a day and a half before going in. All the more nuanced songs were held over the next Witch Watch album, which brings us up to date.

The origin of the song derives from a purchase. I had just gone to Twin Town (there's a pattern here) to scope reverb pedals. I traversed home with the Electro-harmonix Cathedral reverb unit. It gave me plenty of options sound wise and definitely upped the Murder Shoes live sound on my end. There's a saying that every time you buy a new pedal, you write three new songs just messing around with it. It's no lore, and Emily Empathy came out of it. I used it in conjunction with a Seymor Duncan 805 a Boss DD7 Delay, and a Boss Chorus CE3. I twiddled the knobs until I got a ferocious, swirly sound and used it on the intro and chorus parts and then opted for a more gentle chorus/delay/reverb sound on the 12 string for the verses. I was looking for a cross between The Cure's Pornography album, Joy Division's Still, and some Treasure era Cocteau Twins.

Knol captured everything better than the demo as per usual. Prior to recording, when we gathered on his porch to load in our equipment, I had my 5 string and 12 string acoustics in tow. Knol, in his usual serious/not serious manner said "what the hell is that?" while focusing on our wooden guitars. We hadn't used any on the first album (with him) and he probably thought we were going soft on him. Knowing he was fucking around, I shrugged and said "you'll see". As it turns out, Knol likes our non-rock shit the best. Listen closely to the verses for some subtle and tasty Buddy Holly style guitar licks from Robert.