/White Haze

(click image to mail order album from 78 Records)

I was comissioned to create a track for a compilation called Canopy: Songs For Southern Forests by the Northcliffe Sculpture Walk in 2006/07. After coming up with about four lyrics for songs (we had to submit proposals for each song but I never know if something's going to work until I have a satisfactory draft of a lyric), I hit upon writing about the magical-realism quality of the burning off being done on our drive into Northcliffe. I'd had a really stressful month and the smoke felt (and yes, I know how wanky this sounds) like it was cleansing all that somehow. It was actually the first idea I had for the project, so I think it was always in the back of my mind to do it anyway. I think the lyric also reflects my discomfort at approaching the subject matter (Northcliffe and its' surrounds) as a city-dwelling dandy.

The smoke was actually around for the entire weekend; we spent one of the days down there visiting Pemberton's wineries (it's our favourite region) and they were burning off the national park surrounding Glouscter Ridge while we had lunch. It was beautiful.

Instrumentally, it's all about the guitar line. Which is about five seconds worth of samples from having Mark come over and improvise on the chords for thirty minutes. Sometimes it's the simplest stuff that works. 

And yeah, to answer your question, the title does reference Hendrix.