Album Notes and Credits
Learn more about the artists and tracks
From Producer Don Fyffe...
It's amazing the things that manifest themselves while sitting in my home studio during a pandemic.
I named this album Antidote, as it represents the "neutralizer" for the poison that was injected into our world at the beginning of 2020. This album was my personal antidote that helped me get through a weird and perplexing era. I have written and produced a lot of music over the years---most of it started, but never finished. They were fun ideas that took me down the road for about 30 seconds, and then...they were put on a shelf never to be finished. This album though, represents ideas and creations that seemed to come out of nowhere, and they all knew where they were going. The creations drove themselves to completion. It's been somewhat of a spiritual experience. Antidote represents a small miracle.
With a heart full of joy and gratitude, I share below the ideas behind each tune and the artists and musicians who helped bring them to life.
CREDIT AND SPECIAL THANKS TO:
Cheshy/Cheshy-Vocals (Not At All Friendly)
Bethany Ann Warner-Vocals (Ode to Dorothy Bradford)
Artwork-Lucy Fyffe
Andres Mayo Mastering & Audio Post-mastering
Benny Steele at The Steele Factory in Los Angeles, CA-mixing and mastering (Antidote)
Al Pace-Additional album mixing and mastering
Antidote
Antidote was written as an anthem to the superhero that lives in our minds; the man or woman that takes on our adversaries and kicks their butts. They jump in the air in a slo-mo move, swinging their leg out to clip down the bad guys. Antidote is the neutralizer to what’s trapped you, allowing you to break through and run free.
Electro-Leather
Cool Joe Humphrie has an old rusty 3-wheel adult bicycle in his garage. Dressed in black leather, Joe takes his bike out into the desert with a small entourage of friends. Armed with various rocket engines, they adorn the cycle with the engines. They strap Joe on the bike and light the engine.
Joe, nor the bike have ever been found.
4AM Rain
Have you ever woke up a little too early in the morning and it’s raining outside? You can’t fall back to sleep, so you go on a walk. Your ears, and all the rest of your senses, wake up to the soothing rain as you walk through the early dawn, in the cozy mists.
Not At All Friendly
Vocals-Cheshy/Cheshy
One morning, a lady woke up and discovered that "they" had finally come to get her, and the rest of us. The skies above were full of saucers and little green men began to take over.
Is there someone or something in your life that is trying really hard to "take over" you , or control you? Do you sit, watch, listen and let them? Are “they” trying to take over your I-D-O?
Just remember, you’re the one who chooses.
LYRICS
Eyes open to weird, weird noises, something isn’t right here.
Open up my green, green drapes, and I see a huge…(I don’t know what that is.)
I hear the neighbors outside and they’re screaming,
And people running away.
I look up and I see that they’re coming for me.
Yeah, Alright, Yeah
You think that you’re the ruler? You think you can take over?
You think that you can feed me all your I-D-O?
They all wanna take over you, take over me, with their ideology.
Just open your eyes and you’ll see they’re not at all friendly.
They tell you it’s how it will be, hook you and me.
Believing seems so easy.
But you and I have to agree,
They’re not at all friendly.
I’m running as fast as I can. I gotta get outta here.
Little green men taking over saying, “Everything’s gonna be all right!”
Everybody’s starting to tell me, “It’s all better this way.
Just listen and follow and be sure to obey!”
You think that you’re the ruler? You think you can take over?
You think that you can feed me all your I-D-O?
I’m the one with power. I’m the one who chooses.
Don’t think you can take over all my I. D. O.
You think that you control me? Hope I feel the pressure?
I see through all your secrets and all your I-D-O.
They all wanna take over you, take over me,
With their ideology.
Just open your eyes and you’ll see,
They’re not at all friendly.
They tell you its how it will be, hook you and me.
Believing seems so easy. But you and I have to agree,
They’re not at all friendly.
They all wanna take over you, take over me,
With their ideology.
Just open your eyes and you’ll see,
They’re not at all friendly .
They tell you its how it will be, hook you and me.
Believing seems so easy.
Just look in their eyes and you’ll see,
They’re not at all friendly
Ode to Dorothy Bradford
Vocals-Bethany Ann Warner
Dorothy Bradford came over on the Mayflower in 1620. She endured the wintery journey across the Atlantic, looking forward to a new life of hope, only to make the ultimate sacrifice.
I wanted to write a song in the spirit of Dave Brubeck who always tickled us with different time signatures. This piece is in 7/4, and as the rhythm was written, started to sound like a ship sailing through the endless sea. I could hear water, and thought this should be a song about a journey across the ocean. The Mayflower came to mind.
As I researched material for the song, I came across the sad story of
Dorothy Bradford. Dorothy, William Bradford’s wife, accompanied him on the Mayflower. I couldn’t believe that Dorothy and William left their baby son behind to make the journey. They intended to return to get him later, as he was too young to make such a miserable journey. When the passengers of the Mayflower docked in Provincetown, and the men left to go scouting, the records simply state that Dorothy Bradford fell off the ship and drowned in the waters below.
This song basically wrote itself.
The sad cellos and funeral drums mid song, reflect what I imagine her husband must have felt as he grieved the news of Dorothy's tragic death. After writing the piece, I discovered that the year that this album was written is also the 400th anniversary of Dorothy’s death, and the arrival of the passengers of the Mayflower. May we never forget the pilgrims, and why they left their homes. And may we never forget Dorothy Bradford.
LYRICS
A little girl came down from heaven,
Born in England in 1597.
At 16, she married her lover William,
Sought a new life in a colony as a pilgrim.
Left Baby Johnny, she’d come fetch him later,
T'was much too cold across the Atlantic in the winter.
Docked at Provincetown, men left wives and daughters.
Then Dorothy fell overboard--drowned in the icy waters.
Swing Straight
There’s a beautiful "clash" that occurs when a swinging hiphop beat and straight 16th notes meet.
I Know You Can Do It
I don’t know who knows we can do it, but something or some power in and outside of us is always whispering confidence in our ears. What is it that you want to do? What are you waiting for? He knows we can do it, if we put our mind to it...
LYRICS
I know you can do it.
I know you can do it.
If you put your mind to it.
You can do anything you want, anything you dream.
(Work a little longer; put your iPhone down.)
Get up and go do it.
Get out and get right to it.
Today’s a crazy maze, the brain’s a haze, your body’s laz’.
Wake up. Get up. Just go do it,
Cause I know that you can do it.
We all got a hurdle standing in our way.
We gotta face it when we get up everyday.
We all feel the pain, it’s in our bones and in the brain.
None of us get a free pass.
So just focus on that first step, and then another, and then another…
Just breathe. Just take it.
Just breathe, and you’ll make it.
Just breathe, and you’ll make it.
Just breathe, and you’ll make it…
Jiggle Machine
Jiggle is good. Jiggle only occurs with motion. When there's lots of jiggle, we feel lots of good. Be a Jiggle Machine! When people see you jiggling, they’ll stop, stare and say, “Hey, there’s a Jiggle Machine!”
Why Do I Always?
Do you ever have regrets? Do you keep doing the same dumb thing over and over? We all do. So take a timeout, and ponder, “why do I always_______? Fill in the blank. Feel bad—feel the pain for a moment. Then move on. Maybe you’ll do it again, but we can always change.
Eisenhower's Warning
On January 17, 1961, Dwight B. Eisenhower, the 34th President of the United States, gave his farewell speech. He was a wise leader, with a warning for the coming generations. Did we listen? Enjoy excerpts from his final television speech to America. “…We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren, without risking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage. America knows that this world of ours, ever-growing smaller, must avoid becoming a community of dreadful fear and hate…”