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I was experimenting with the drum machine, just seeing what I could make it do, and then I played along with that. I had heard the last song on Ministry's Twitch LP, and thought 'I bet I could do that with my HR-16". I de-tuned the drums so they would sound like industrial samples and turned them into this machine-gun noise pattern.
Anyway, it was the tail wagging the dog, and made for too much of a canned song. The first time I played it for Deron and Amy, I asked if they had any ideas for how they could play along. Deron said something like "it sounds good just like that" and Amy nodded in agreement. I should have pressed the issue, but there was already precedent for me playing solo while the rest of the band hung back, so I suppose it didn't seem like a bad plan. It really should have had everybody on it just going nuts, and I think it could have been a pretty frightening song.
The inspiration for the lyrics came from an ad in a 1986 Thrasher magazine for a Losi skateboard deck called "Pool Dreams". I liked the graphic on the deck. I just took that image and ran with it, describing what I thought it would be like to be in that pool dream. I guess the graphic was supposed to look like a dream-come-true for the obsessed pool-skater. Despite the palm trees, I thought it looked like a nightmare.
On the studio recording, it's evident that I intended to improvise the ending, but that didn't work. When it's time to go to the studio, one should know how the song ends.
Deron: I think this is one of the most successful songs lyrically. "I'm scared of what I used to love, scared of what I can't control" resonated then and now.
Amy: I didn't know many guys into punk and alternative at the time who wrote songs that empathetically described what a woman was thinking and feeling. I really liked how her perspective became Scott's own.
I thought the song sounded fine without additions from me or Deron because it already sounded so full. The machine gun pattern of the drum machine passes for distorted guitar, and the rhythmic texture is thick. I remember Scott improvising the ending…the timekeeping of his bass line is a little wobbly, but I never thought it sounded half-baked.
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