Like most of my songs, I don't sit to write intentionally but just allow it to come, since most of the time I want to play and write anyway. For "Firebreather," my roommate and I were sharing a bottle of wine and watching a game but the mood to pick up my guitar and play struck me. I started jamming on a reggae riff that was with a sweeter, watered-down version of the current melody. Fast forward a couple glasses, and I was playing the riff on the downbeat instead of the upbeat and stumbling over myself at the end of the phrase, (which was all caught on the recorder on my phone and found the next day).

As for lyrics in general, when I write a riff, I just start singing gibberish along with it so that I can nail down a melody. Eventually, a line pops into my head and I work around that. Writing is, at first, not a conscious effort though; I play the riff over and over and mumble. It lulls my conscious mind and lets my subconscious come out and play. "Firebreather" was no exception.

Liking the riff and melody, and really feeling the lyrics � I saw this guy in my mind letting loose, letting temptations consume him -- I quickly took it into a band rehearsal. One of those not-so-rare moments of pure magic happened when the three of us (Brian Stanley, Helen Destroy, and myself), get into a room together. We cranked through the arrangement in less than an hour. Seriously! Then, our producers/development label came in and the whole team worked together through the night and over the next few days to get it to the next level.

We all felt we had our first single. Within a few weeks, we recorded it. We laid drums and bass at The Loft studios in Bronxville, NY with the help of Al Hemberger. At Jungle City, NYC, we cut vocals with Dan Tobiason. John Angier was brought in to sprinkle in some hot color on the keys, and Jeremy Cimino did the final mix to get the song out. I am grateful. I'm surrounded by such incredible band/team that this sort of 'lightning in a bottle' atmosphere is not uncommon. I just hope that folks will dig the sound as much as we do, because we are certainly having a lot of fun creating it.