Softcocks - Meltdown

This song is available on WiMP and Spotify.

Another song from those 8-track sessions. This one's written by Per Terje and features me on an acoustic guitar (that's a first! and a last too, I think...). Meltdown was recorded in February 1993, in the same recording session that also spawned the previous Softcocks' post on this blog. This version was remixed in 2001 by Per F. for a still-in-the-works release of the 8-track recordings. On the original mix, Per Terje's voice was processed to sound as if it was coming through a telephone, but that effect is missing here, unfortunately.

Although not having counted the songs, I think Per Terje was the most prolific songwriter in the band (all five of us wrote songs), and Meltdown is one of my favourite songs of his. In contrast with the rest of us (at least Per F. and myself), his songs came primarily in the form of a melody and some chords, leaving the arrangement to the collective efforts of the band. Consequently, in hindsight, his songs feel the most band-like of our songs. The rest of us usually had, and drove through, quite specific ideas for how the songs should be structured, and how the bass and guitars were supposed to do and sound.

Meltdown was one of the last 4-5 songs we worked on. After having recorded the session this one's taken from, we only had one more recording session, comprising the three very last songs we worked on. Ironically perhaps, these late songs (including Meltdown) ranks among our very best, in my opinion. I will, most likely, post more of them later.

Ironically also because between the two last recording sessions we gave the best concert we ever did, with the best batch of songs and, because of it, much more reassured on the stage than earlier. Even persons usually measured to our music responded positively and gave us good feedback. The concert was held at a one-day "pop-festival" we co-arranged at the sorely missed bar/concert place Skansen (also known as Ritz and other names) in Trondheim. Named, in yet another play of words, "Popstock", the festival comprised us, fellow Trondheimband Epinastic Movements and the Oslobased The Time Lodgers. The festival was a modest success, arrangementwise, and for us as a band (and with a post-party still talked about in reverence). Nontheless, as a band we called it a day a couple of months later. This was one of the reasons that a planned follow-up to the festival, the "Popstock 2", to be held in Oslo and arranged by guys in The Time Lodgers, never saw the light of day. It could have been our national breakthrough (yeah, right!).