This episode follows the creation of a new song built around the Stylophone, a small electronic instrument first introduced by Dubreq in 1968. The prompt led to an experiment with the instrument’s buzzy, unstable tone and its connection to retro electronic texture.

The song was written during May 2026, while preparing full backing tracks for Porchfest. A halftime/doubletime drum feel helped shape the track’s rhythmic foundation.

A May 10 Failure concert at Cat’s Cradle became a major influence on the arrangement. The episode traces the band’s impact, from Magnified and Fantastic Planet through their reunion albums, with attention to how Ken Andrews and Greg Edwards balance melody, structure, atmosphere, and weight.

The production approach centered on giving each instrument a distinct role. The drums create movement, the distorted bass carries melodic weight, the guitars occupy the upper register, and the Stylophone functions as a central voice.

The final arrangement includes a distorted bass line, upper-register guitar textures, a guitar part doubling the Stylophone riff, and a post-bridge harmony line.

The episode also connects the song to Ulysses by James Joyce, especially the minor comic figure Mr. Breen and his nightmare phrase: “The ace of spades went walking up the stairs.”

“Waltz in Spades” imagines that nightmare as a song: fluorescent lights, bodily unease, absurd violence, dream logic, guilt, memory, and an unresolved revelation.

The result is a Stylophone-driven nightmare waltz shaped by Failure’s arrangement lessons and Joyce’s strange comic darkness.

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In this episode, I take on a prompt that felt personal from the start: create a song featuring your grandfather’s handmade folk harp.

That harp has been sitting quietly in the corner of my garage studio—Two Egrets—for years. It’s not just another instrument. My grandfather, James John Garrigan Jr., built it by hand while my grandmother Nell was nearing the end of her life. Because of that, it carries something deeper than sound—it feels like an artifact of love, grief, and endurance.

What You’ll Hear in This Episode

• The story behind the harp and why it feels almost sacramental
• How I transformed a single harp note into a playable synth using iZotope Iris 2
• Building a track from scratch with:
  • Harp-based sampling
  • Native Instruments Drum Lab rhythms
  • Layered acoustic and electronic textures
• Why the entire song sits slightly out of tune (on purpose)
• The unexpected lyrical hook: “It’s hard to remember”

The Creative Turning Point

The song’s meaning came into focus through Bright Lights, Big City—a story about grief, escape, and rediscovery. That influence shaped the emotional core:

Sometimes life makes us forget something essential—that we are, at our core, good.

This song lives in that tension:

• Forgetting vs. remembering
• Escaping vs. facing reality
• Distortion vs. clarity

Production Highlights

• Built from a single sampled harp note, stretched across a keyboard
• Choruses lifted with live drums + pulsing synth bass
• Subtle microtonal tuning shift (~38 cents sharp) for an off-center feel
• Late-stage decision to embrace distortion—pushing vocals and instruments to the edge

Lyrical Themes

• The slow erosion of identity through grief and distraction
• The pull toward numbing out vs. waking up
• A return to something steady and true

Key line:

“The truth don’t change, however strange.”

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In this episode, we start with a familiar rock-and-roll question: are you a Beatles person or a Rolling Stones person? Inspired by a line from Pulp Fiction—where Mia Wallace suggests people fall into either the Beatles or Elvis camp—we explore a slightly different divide: the polished brilliance of The Beatles versus the raw, attitude-driven energy of The Rolling Stones.

From there, the conversation traces the long shadow the Beatles once cast over the Stones—from early covers like “I Wanna Be Your Man” to the era of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and the Stones’ psychedelic reply, Their Satanic Majesties Request. That shadow finally lifted with the swagger and originality of Sticky Fingers—and soon after, the band’s unlikely exile to the south of France, where they created one of rock’s most mythic records: Exile on Main St..

Listening closely to that album—its loose grooves, rough edges, and moments of strange transcendence—becomes the inspiration for a new song, “If You Say So.” This episode walks through the creative process behind it: living with Exile on repeat, experimenting with fast shuffle rhythms, recording on an old jazz-style drum kit, layering Telecaster guitar and bass, and even briefly resurrecting a harmonica that hadn’t been touched in twelve years.

Along the way, we explore the musical choices that shaped the track, from replacing a harsh harmonica line with a saloon-style electric piano to embracing the small imperfections that come with keeping a scratch guitar take in the final mix.

Finally, we look at the meaning behind the lyrics. Written from the perspective of a swaggering, Mick Jagger-inspired narrator, the verses make bold claims about skill, endurance, and virtue—only to be quietly undercut by the chorus: “If you say so.” What emerges is less a rock anthem than a snapshot of an inner tension between ego and skepticism.

Part music history, part studio diary, and part reflection on creative process, this episode explores how inspiration travels—from a legendary double album recorded in exile to a small, imperfect song finding its own voice.

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www.mikegarrigan.com - In this episode, I trace a line from hearing Nevermind for the first time in 1991 to writing an original song inspired by its raw power and dynamic contrasts. Moving through memory, music history, and the nuts and bolts of recording, I explore how Nirvana’s quiet-loud architecture shaped not just a sound, but a way of seeing. The song “Diamonds in the Sky” becomes a vehicle for non-dual spirituality, integral consciousness, and creative surrender. Along the way, I confront artistic fear, questions of originality, and the inner voices that threaten the work before it can breathe.

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www.mikegarrigan.com - Mike responds to the production prompt: "Create a song that is notated in its entirety before production begins." Hear a detailed behind-the-scenes account of "The Hollow Man," a new song. Topics include a commentary on John Dickson Carr's The Hollow Man and the pros and cons of notating music before recording it.

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www.mikegarrigan.com - Mike responds to the production prompt: "Create a song in the style of Pink Moon by Nick Drake." Hear a detailed behind-the-scenes account of "Revelations," a new song. Topics include how to select an alternate tuning, how to apply narrative structure to lyric writing, and how to apply specific production techniques to a given genre.

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The production lab continues. In this episode, singer/songwriter Mike Garrigan describes the process of writing, producing, and recording a song in the style of Duran Duran's Rio. Hear the result, a new song called "The Girl at Table 13."

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www.mikegarrigan.com - Singer/songwriter Mike Garrigan shares his experience of being diagnosed with prostate cancer. "Mercury," a previously unreleased outtake from the "Satellites" sessions, is also featured.

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www.mikegarrigan.com - Singer/songwriter Mike Garrigan shares the eleventh experiment from his Production Lab.  Given the prompt "Create a song using only the Waves SSL plugin on the channels" and a month in which to work, Mike produced "Change Your Mind." Hear the song and a detailed description of the entire creative process.

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www.mikegarrigan.com - Singer/songwriter Mike Garrigan shares the tenth experiment from his Production Lab.  Given the prompt "Create a song imagined as an outtake from The Downward Spiral" and a month in which to work, Mike produced "Black Echo." Hear the song and a detailed description of the entire creative process.

Notes:

1. The featured song is inspired by the Michael Connelly novel of the same name.
2. Correction: Adrian Belew, not Alan Moulder, played the ring mod guitar on The Downward Spiral.

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www.mikegarrigan.com - Singer/songwriter Mike Garrigan shares the ninth experiment from his Production Lab.  Given the prompt "Record a song where a Wurlitzer electric piano is the main instrument" and a month in which to work, Mike produced "Stupid Love." Hear the song and a detailed description of the entire creative process.

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