Part 2 was actually one of the earliest parts of the album to be written, mere days before lockdown began in 2020. Xerian's wondering what was going on was written first, and the rest of the song grew out of that.
I also came up with the "Stranger in a stranger land" idea and melody around the same time, but it didn't fit in Part 2 and was pushed into a new song (Part 3).
Voicing Xerian was done on a VC340 vocoder, with the sung parts double-tracked. I had a lot of fun figuring out how to make his spoken parts sound more animated by jiggling the pitch bend lever while speaking.
Xerian's diagnostic computer was made using the TRAN speech synthesizer, and then transferring the tape to the multitrack several times to overdub it, while grabbing at the reel to glitch the tape speed and throw it out of whack.
lyrics
Something bad was clearly wrong as he crawled out of the wreck
As his vision glitched again he performed a systems check
There was damage in his brain and it spread throughout his core
Xerian gave a cry of pain and collapsed upon the floor
MEMORY PARITY ERROR
SYSTEM HALTED
"Floating in an endless void, I assumed that I was dead
No sense or feeling, just these voices in my head
A flood of colours shapes and textures swam before my line of sight
One of the Voices spoke a curse and I fell back into the night..."
"As my sense of touch returned I was lying on a slab
Like the natives took my corpse to dissect inside their lab
I tried in vain to speak and let them know that I was still alive
I hoped and prayed they'd stay their hand until a rescue could arrive...
When my vision finally cleared, I could see the creatures plain
They had got my visor off and had tampered with my brain
I couldn't move, I couldn't speak, and yet they seemed to understand
They probed and pulled my mine apart, these monsters from another land"
“Blink if you can understand me, Mr...” “...Xerian.”
“You’ve been badly damaged but we’ve done the best we can
Sorry if the operation caused distress or pain
I also have to warn you that we’ve just replaced your brain.”
"You're in a land where magic works but it can act like radiation
It cooked your brain and left you in this situation
We used our spells to move your mind into a brain of our design
You're still the same guy as before, so just relax it will be fine."
"But what you're saying can't be true!
I feel like I'm still me, as sure as you are you!"
"We've done this kind of thing before.
So just relax, no need to worry anymore."
"If you insist, I'll walk you through the gory details.
I have the power to steal your soul and all that entails
The hardest part was matching up your senses to our interface
It took a while to give you sight but now we're talking face-to-face!"
"I find this all hard to believe!
I'd like to trust you, but it makes me feel naive..."
"We'll do our best to ease your mind.
Now can you flex your arm, if you would be so kind?"
credits
from Xerian,
released February 4, 2022
Niall played by Sofox
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