Breathe Out Her Name

I had been writing humorous songs and wanted to force myself into something else. So I wrote this dark song of hopelessness just to prove that I could do it. The “hold me, keep me, kill me” phrase in the chorus was one of those 3am things I jotted down and saved until I discovered where it should live. I reversed the gender roles from a fairly standard “addiction vs love” song. I know a few things about addiction.
For the recording, producer Paul Carabello helped me make the rhythm loop that fades in at the start, then I just played some happy-go-lucky acoustic Travis picking that betrays the disturbing subject of the story. The spooky atmospheric stuff is a Strat, heavy slide bar, Princeton overdrive bordering on feedback, and a Wah pedal.
Listening through all 12 songs, this one didn’t seem to fit anywhere on the album’s lineup other than the end, and now, for me at least, it fits perfectly at the end.