Four-chord songs and the future...

They're not all bad. Paul challenged me to write songs with only a few chords. Sing It From Your Heart has four chords. Paramilitary Jamobree has six chords. We'll Be Free is slightly more expansive, but mostly in the intro/outro. It's about the right four chords. I use a lot of Polynesian chromatic planing. Sing It From Your Heart has four chords: Bm7, Dmaj7, Cmaj7, C#dim7. As a result, it shifts modes when the phrase is repeated sequentially. In general, NZ rock guitar is fond of shifting tonics rather than ii-V-I or I-vi-ii-V-I. - The backing vocals are all improvised in the new albums, but Paul kept it that way. He didn't want new master recordings: he wanted interpretations. People asked me to do impressions of various people that sang with the group. We should get Taylor on Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds and I'm Only Sleeping. There's increasing contributions from female vocalists after Rubber Soul. It was my choice to keep it to voices, guitars, bass and drums only. My mouth trombone filled in for any brass-like sounds. - Taylor's not as expansive harmonically: she's about the economy of her lyrics. She keeps the backing similar, but makes surgical adjustments to the flow. Her four chords are usually interesting as well, with suspensions and inversions. As a result, we get songs like All Too Well, which is just a loop, but contains meaning. She extends her melodies over the same chords. I prefer to develop the backing voices. As for our friendship: it's been going on since 2008. She was just hiding until this year. She's still hiding, but so am I. Paul and Taylor were kidnapped several times this year.