Where it comes from: "Under Watchful Eyes" music

"Under Watchful Eyes" started with a beat I had used for a tune my high school jazz band played. It was titled "Nemesis," a jazz waltz, which I had never played before. I was pretty proud of this beat, and had tried unsuccessfully to use it in one of the first Strange Land songs which thankfully never saw a studio recording. Yet I somehow always came back to that jazz waltz.

One day last spring, my practice brought me back to the beat. I walked over to my piano and started trying to plunk out what I remembered about it. It had started with drums and bass playing sometimes in octaves, other times walking. With that as my starting point, I added a heavy dose of dissonance for the walking parts. Putting the tune in drop D helped me tap into my King's X influence a bit more, and made playing easier, especially the bits that dance around G#. Finally I played around with augmented 5ths because I love that sound. It sounded good in both minor and major tonalities, so I kept them both. They're now the pre-chorus and chorus sections, respectively.

Sean came up with the vocal melody around the pre-chorus and chorus, and I want to thank him for that lovely harmony. I went to work on the melody for verses, thinking a blues scale would work for this down-and-dirty rockin' jazz waltz. In the process I discovered that the melody of "Symphony of Destruction" works pretty well during the verses--give it a try sometime!

For a long time (until two weeks before the release) we used "Nemesis" as a working title as Sean and I bounced ideas back and forth. After the lyrics were finalized, we discussed changing the title; it no longer suggested anything Nemesis-like, but instead had a more brooding, suspicious feeling. All told, it was the quickest write for a Strange Land song to date.