Two Deaths at a Halloween Party - by Orange Peel

Happy Halloween! Here’s a Halloween themed song to celebrate.

This song was originally a short story that I wrote almost a decade ago, back in 2016 (!). My short story of the same title was published on In Shades, a now-defunct illustrated short fiction publication, which I created with my wife, Marina.

When I came to start writing some songs for my Orange Peel project in 2019, the story came back to me. I’m not sure why. I had composed this slow-burning instrumental piece on my baritone tenor guitar, but I was struggling to find lyrics for the melody. When I remembered the short story, I experimented with adapting the story into lyrics. I’d never composed a song in this way before, so the challenge was an interesting one.

The initial session for the final version of the song was in March 2020, about a week before lockdown, at the basement studio my producer and former bandmate Patrick James Fitzroy was using in Greenwich. The studio was lit by fairy lights, but was otherwise suitably nocturnal in its vibe.

I was in London, as Marina had some of her work (neon light portraits) in a group show, so I took the opportunity to cut the guitars for the song with Patrick. We spent the day recording the tenor guitar parts, including the solo. I can’t remember whether we added the tremolo effect on the day or afterwards. I do know that the guitar parts I recorded were then re-amped (I believe through a Roland JC120) at some later date. When we said adios to each other at the end of the session, we agreed to meet again in a couple of months. But the next session on ‘Two Deaths…’ wouldn’t be for another 26 months, due to the global pandemic. And the next time we were recording together was in Barcelona, in June 2022, where we cut the vocals for the song.

The final session for the song took place in Patrick’s new studio near Docklands in September 2023. The drums and bass on the final version were played by Patrick. I turned up to do some work on the song in his studio, and he’d cut these brilliant brush-stick drums. I tried to add a bass part, but my original part, as heard on the demo, was too rigid, under these skittering, lyrical drums. Patrick sat down and improvised a more freewheeling part that complemented the drums more.

I just discovered an earlier demo of the song (below), which I recorded a couple of days before Halloween back in 2019. This version has simplified drums and a more regimented bassline, but otherwise, the core DnA of the track is all there.

‘Two Deaths at a Halloween Party’ (2019 demo).

I’m not going to go into the meaning of the lyrics, but hopefully I managed to keep the essence of the original story in there.

Two Deaths at a Halloween Party.

So late,

that it’s early again.

If I leave now

it won’t make much difference.

The club

looked like a graveyard

with the usual cast of characters:

Devils, ghosts

and witches,

skeletons, clowns

and vampires.

And I tried to talk myself out of it.

But I can never find my way out of here.

The deejay,

she was playing that song,

the one that starts: “All our times have come.”

And some girl

came up to me and said:

“Baby, you know I love that movie.”

I nodded,

and said I knew what she meant.

Then she said: “Come on, let’s get a drink?”

And I tried to talk myself out of it.

But I can never find my way out of here.

We met another guy

who looked like Death.

And I told him that’s how I felt myself.

And later on

they asked if I needed a ride.

Then they flipped a coin

to see who’d drive.

And the other man

who was dressed like me,

he lost the bet, and got in the driver’s seat.

And I tried to talk myself out of it.

But I can never find my way out of here.

The other Death yawned,

not for the first time, and said:

“When you wanna stop, just say where.”

I glanced across

as he nodded off.

And said: “Sure. We’re almost there.”

And I tried to talk myself out of it.

But I can never find my way out of here.

Out of here.

—

Anyway, Happy Halloween and ¡Feliz Día de Muertos! for this weekend.

JCV