Kissing Judas

(continued from previous page) jaw totally dropped and like, twist my arm here. Sure. So it was kind of a freaky thing because I sent him the tracks. He did the bass on that and it’s all one take all the way through. And he also worked and played on another song. And there was a night that I’m up in my studio and Morgan comes in like ‘what are you watching?’ I’m like, ‘What do you mean?’ Morgan says, It’s like you’re in here. I thought you’re watching like a comedy special or something because you’re giggling like a little kid.’ I’m like, ‘No, I’ve got Stephen, Rudy and Billy all on between text, messenger, email, and on a phone call all back and forth. I’m thinking to myself, if I would have thought this back when I was a little kid in Middle School watching MTV and daydreaming looking out the window thinking one day, it’d be so cool to even meet these guys much less have been playing on songs we wrote. It was so surreal, but I was just laughing to myself that how crazy this was.

Bret Gyrich: Yeah, just kind of talking to all these guys in one night, just kind of, you know, whatever.

Music News: So what is “Cheshire” about.

Morgan Sullivan: Two-faced people.

Music News: Oh, the typical Cheshire smile.

Morgan Sullivan: Exactly, two-faced people. Listen to the lyrics, you’ll like it. Just listen to the lyrics you’ll like it. Anybody that’s ever been screwed over will...

Bret Gyrich: You know a lot of interesting people too. And you write songs about them.

Morgan Sullivan: Allegedly, allegedly. But it’s a fun rockin’ bar song. That one. I don’t know. It’s got the F bomb in it. So just kind of one of my favorites. Because I love the F bomb. I haven’t said it on the show.

Music News: You’re very good at it.

Morgan Sullivan: Yeah, thank you so much. But it’s about two-faced people from the point of view of the two-faced person, not the wronged person, so it’s kind of interesting.

Dave Sullivan: Well, there was somebody that used to say so many things all the time that we turn those things that were said into a song and woven them into the lyrics.

Morgan Sullivan: No, not all the things, just one line.

Corey Sullivan: There was a couple of like two, two phrases.

Morgan Sullivan: I’m just playing with the words I’m saying.

Corey Sullivan: ‘Fake all the friends I’m making.’

Morgan Sullivan: Yeah, ‘faking all the friends I’m making’ to do well, it’s two different times. Yeah.

Dave Sullivan: ‘I’ll sell you out when something better comes along.’ continued on next page

Morgan Sullivan: That was not, that was not verbatim. No, the other things weren’t really verbatim either. It was more about, I’m just playing with words.

Dave Sullivan: We turned it into a fun song.

Morgan Sullivan: Yeah, we turned it into a fun song.

Dave Sullivan: When we play it the whole crowd shouts back the chorus which has the F bomb in it. Yeah, if you really knew me, you’d run.

Corey Sullivan: Redacted.

Morgan Sullivan: Redacted. So it’s from the point of view of the two-faced person.

Music News: Okay. And their name? Oh, come on, you know, don’t you just want to say, Hey, I wrote a song about you.

Morgan Sullivan: You know, I leave that open to interpretation for anybody that can make it into somebody they know, like it’s fun for him. Yeah, I ain’t worried about that. Make it into whoever you want.

Music News: Okay. All right, “Neon Avenue”. Who’s that? Who’s out roaming the “Neon Avenue”?

Bret Gyrich: “Neon Avenue” is a song about my hometown in the Philippines. It’s called Olongapo City and there’s a street there called Magsaysay Drive and it’s our version of Bourbon Street in New Orleans. And you know Beale Street in Memphis. I think it’s in Memphis, but yeah, I spent some time there when I graduated high school. I was in the peak of my songwriting days and I had to write a song about my hometown. That’s what that’s about and everything in the lyrics was something that I saw or something that I experienced, and just kind of put pen to paper with it.

Music News: Well, give us an indication here about what are a couple of things that you have in there and what do they mean to you?

Bret Gyrich: Let’s see, there’s see ‘profits singing Hallelujah.’ Down at the station you see all these crazy people talking about the end of the world, Jesus coming, and you see beggars in the streets asking for money. The homeless and beggars and thieves are finding Jesus in you. They see you. They think that you can spare them some cash and you know, just kind of, I guess, just kind of help them out for a little bit. What else is there? ‘She’s dressed like a firecracker on fourth of July.’ It’s about a girl I was dating at the time and there was a breakup. I would hang out at this one cowboy bar in the middle of Magsaysay Drive. It was weird to me that there was a cowboy bar, a cowboy bar in the middle of the Philippines and that’s where I would like to hang out when I was feeling homesick? Yeah, that’s the only avenue.

Music News: Okay. Well, that brings us now to “Cabaret”, which obviously is a salute to the movie cabaret, right?

Bret Gyrich: Not quite.

Music News: Not quite. Okay, “Cabaret”. What is that one about?

Morgan Sullivan: Go ahead, Brett. Yeah.

Music News: Oh, is that yours Bret?

Bret Gyrich: Yeah.

Music News: Okay. It’s not a salute to the movie “Cabaret”.

Bret Gyrich: It’s not. It’s a salute to all the strip clubs that I used to hang out at back in my day.

Music News: That’s close.

Bret Gyrich: Yeah. Yeah, I don’t remember who it was, but somebody once told me that all great rock star rock bands have a song about a strip club, or a stripper? And I thought, Well, I gotta have one too.

Bret Sullivan: Yeah, I liked that one a lot.