Traces

“It’s a picture from the top of this mountain, where it’s eternally twilight, death is there. I really thought there were angels near me. I was hearing things, seeing things. It was a very bad, sad time.” - R-L-J

“‘Traces of the Western Slopes’ was like West Side Story, I was drawing you into a scene. That was my reference, not songwriting – the scene when Riff and Tony are killed under the freeway was the fear of my own life at the time. The other influence was Rimbaud, who I was reading constantly. Steely Dan was a big influence in general: those chords in the chorus are certainly inspired by their dark patterns.”  R-L-J