[audio:halfwayhome.mp3]

Halfway Home has been through so many tweaks and different versions over the last few years that I’ve lost count. At one point I had an entire hard drive that was devoted exclusively to this song. It suffered a career-ending meltdown last year and I had to start the song again from scratch – probably a good thing.
Production-wise, I think this song really came to life and changed from a semi-generic boogie to something that bumps in a more ethereal way when I started tossing backwards sounds into the mix. There’s backwards piano, acoustic guitar, beatbox and Tibetan prayer bowl (well, of course), and they tweak the song just enough to be a little unsettling. Good times.
The X-factor that finally finished off the song is the Queen-style harmonized guitars that come in during the second part of the bridge. To me they sound like an alien spaceship taking off, don’t fit the song at all, and are therefore so wrong they’re right.
I got so excited when I came up with the idea that I basically dimed every guitar amp in my house and shook several pictures off the wall. The cat refused to eat for days.