Hi Friends! We are in our final stretches of Covered-20 and today we have "Far" by one of my favorite bands ever, Coheed and Cambria.

I can clearly remember the first time I heard this band. It was 2002, and I was at my bass player's house, and he said to me "You wanna check out the new Equal Vision band? Ben (Jorgensen, from Armor For Sleep) sent it to me". I didn't realize I was about to hear "Time Consumer" and then my life changed on the spot. Coheed influenced me so much, and resonated so deeply, that I ended up getting their dragonfly logo tattooed on me. Their second album came out on my 17th birthday and was my first "never-leave-the-car-stereo" album. So basically, they mean a hell of a lot to me, regardless of time or member changes, or different records.

This song, well, happens to be on my least favorite of their albums by far (har har). I remember listening to this record when it came out, and the absence of Josh Eppard and his ability to groove became even more apparent with, an immensely talented, yet very precise, drummer like Chris Pennie. The two ballad type songs were my favorites: "Pearl of the Stars" and "Far", but in the case of the latter, I felt like the production took so much away from the beauty of the track. It's such a lovely and heartfelt tune, and the industrial vibe that the band went for on this record just didn't match up in my head. Years ago, I remember playing it on an ex-girlfriend's guitar and just realized how, if I were to do it, that's how I'd start: A simple acoustic/hollow bodied guitar. While that was the plan, I started this off with drums, and then went to the acoustic.

The drums on the original track are basically just a loop, but with a very specific and very mathy kick pattern. I personally don't care for it, regardless of how impressive it is, so I decided to make things more natural sounding and use a lot of tom work to jazz up the part that literally could have been kick, snare, and hi hat the whole time. What I ended up with was really fun to play, and allowed me to use the second floor tom which I usually exclude. Also, putting those heavy kicks in the break before the guitar solo just felt RIGHT.

Speaking of guitar solos, I was fortunate enough to have my longtime friend, and Chapter bandmate, Chris Grzan play guitar on this track. Chris is one of the people I could bond with over Coheed, and has been since we were teenagers, so it was only right that I had him on it. We kept a lot of the "lead" parts as they appear in the original song, but when we got to the solo, we wanted to let loose a little more and do something fun, especially considering how amazing of a guitarist he is. So, Chris took my Walsh Yadah, in its first real appearance on a recording, and let it rip. We did about 4 takes of improvisation and then figured out which bits we liked and did a take or two of the completed idea. I felt so hyped as we got closer to the final version, and it reminded me of being in the studio and working on our own songs. It's one of the things I'm looking forward to the most once this series wraps up.

My common law husband, Brett, reappears on this one too. When I met Brett, he was in a band called Fire it Up, which took a lot of cues from Coheed, and thus, again, it was only right that he play on this. Much like our work on the solo, we basically ran through the song a couple times and changed things where needed to match the new vibe of the song. Brett totally killed it, and did so on his Spectre bass, in honor of Coheed's original bass player, Mic Todd, who influenced him to buy that in the first place.

The final result of this song is the lush, pretty, version I always wanted to hear. Credit is due very much to Coheed for writing it, but I am really proud of what we accomplished. This was Chris' first time recording vocals, and did an awesome job, and once we got everything put together it just sounded right. I just can't express enough how happy I am to make stuff with my friends.

As with everything this month, all the money we raise is going to Tiny Changes. With everything going on in this world, kids are especially vulnerable to the trauma and emotional stress that we're all experiencing. Young people need to know that their mental health is a priority and that they can get the help they need. Tiny Changes is one organization that works to support just that. Please look into their story and donate if you can.

That's it for now. Next week will be the end of this project, and we'll have (hopefully) more than one tune for you to enjoy. Cheers!