…No idea what it would be about. So we jammed, as we always used to do when we lived together, just keyboards and drums. We settled into a feel, started to develop a chord progression we both liked. Then Mark sat down to write lyrics, as I continued on the musical exploration. When I took a break to look at what he’d explored, there was so much there, a sort of aching, searching love song, with a threatening tone. And there two phrases, in parallel places… one “I turn to you” and another “I burn for you.” After some discussion, we decided to combine them, which became “I turn for you,” something neither of us had ever heard before, and which led us to realize our character, our singer was a werewolf. It was already there. “Under a dead red moon” was in his original lyric. So, like throwing a ceramic pot on a wheel, we shaped it until it became even more of what it already was.

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In the music, The Hunt section is meant to be werewolves prowling the town, quietly howling ahwoos. This largely comes from my Catholic choir upbringing. I always loved the polyphony, the crossing melodies and harmonies, and thought it would be spookily beautiful to have these interweaving lines. There are other little things too. There’s a line played on all instruments introducing the first and last verses — keys, guitar, trumpet and sax — that is a whole tone scale, out of order, a startling, ominous sound. In the end of The Hunt, I needed a crescendo to lead into the bridge so I played a chord on electric piano, loudly, and flipped it so it plays backward, so that it grows suddenly into the bridge. We found the bridge lyrics intriguing as well, a psychological dive into the hunter and his love victim who doesn’t resist but rather is captivated, “within your wishes, against your sighs.” All followed by Peter Harris’ amazing solo that echos and explores the musical motif.

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Piko, my wife, and I were in Yellowstone National Park and one night from our hotel room we heard this wolf party. It sounded so close, I grabbed my phone and recorded what I could. Those are the wolves that end the song.

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Thank you to The Leeg — Mark, Jim, and Pete — for their work on this, to Rick and Glenn for playing horns, to Nathan for his perfect harmonies and quiet howling, and to Randy and Jimi for their mix suggestions.