the wallflowers

rebel, sweetheart
released: may 24, 2005

recording the album

The album was recorded at Brendan O'Brien's studio, "Southern Tracks Recording Studio," in Atlanta, Georgia. It's the first time that the band recorded an album in a place other than their home town, L.A. There weren't any guest musicians/vocalists on the record, although O'Brien plays guitar and sings background vocals on the record. Lenny Castro played some percussion.

The band started to record Rebel, Sweetheart in late July, 2004. They finished in about 6 weeks' time (September 2004).

The quickness in finishing the recording is attributed to a couple of factors. First, O'Brien toured with the band in June 2004. They got to know each other musically and work on a few songs on the road. Second, the band arrived in Atlanta with 22 or 23 fully written songs. So the recording process was more a matter of polishing the songs and deciding which to record than writing the songs in the studio. This made for a lot faster recording timeline.

The last song recorded for the album was "The Beautiful Side of Somewhere," the first single.

Rebel, Sweetheart has been described as an "alive record," which is not "live," because it was recorded with overdubs, but the songs "breathe" and come alive as they're played.

promoting the album

Rebel, Sweetheart was released in several versions. The standard cd version, the dualdisc version (which includes footage from The Wallflowers' concert on the USS Stennis, an interview with Jon Lovitz, and videos of re-arranged versions of "One Headlight," "6th Avenue Heartache," "Some Flowers Bloom Dead," "Halo," and "For The Life Of Me."), a Japanese version, which includes a bonus track, "Nothing To See Here," and a U.K. version, which includes the bonus track, "Just One Breath Away."

The Wallflowers did a brief tour 6-city tour in March, culminating in a critically acclaimed performance at SXSW in Austin. Then, Rami, Jakob, and Fred toured radio stations in Atlanta, Baltimore, Washington D.C., New York, and Boston. Two weeks later (in April), the trio headed to radio stations in San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle, and Portland. In addition to giving interviews at the stations, they played live acoustic versions of several songs from the album in different combinations, including "The Beautiful Side of Somewhere," "We're Already There," and "Here He Comes."

the songs

Written within the same general six-month time frame, Jakob says he was influenced by current events, but there "isn't any specific evenet that I'm alluding to. I think it's a great time to be writing songs. There's just something in the air right now. It's really a ripe time for songwriters to be writing. I don't think I've felt that way throughout the time that I've been writing." In addition, he notes he was "more influenced by what I'd been reading as opposed to directly borrowing or listening to other music. I did to some degree try to work within a language on this record."

The album reflects a "collection of songs that are meant to be together" and they're connected by similar (often apocalyptic) images and a consistent language, influenced by the poetry of Auden and Byron, among others.

When asked if the songs are written from any particular point of view, Jakob responds, "The songs don't come from a strictly imaginary place. For songwriters right now, there's such a huge amount to work with. You don't have to be specific. You don't have to get on any kind of bandwagon or crusade, or write manifestos about the times, but the times are certainly very interesting right now. They affect everybody individually, and that's more the place I come from -- how they affect what I go through and what I see around me."

Days of Wonder

The line "Happy birthday to the war," was written on the first-year anniversary of the Iraq War. But, as Jakob says, the song isn't really a direct comment about that war. It is a song about images of any war, which makes it more timeless and relevant across time. He notes, "People tend to grab lines out of context sometimes. Happy birthday to the war -- that's just a reference of time, really. War is always happening, war is always there. And if it's not, it's inevitably around the corner. That's just an imagistic, apocalyptic song, I suppose."

The initial impetus for the song was chaos. Jakob refers to a poem by Lord Byron called "Darkness" that evokes similar images and is couched in similar language.

Background vocals are provided by Brendan O'Brien, Fred Eltringham, and Greg Richling.

The Passenger

This song was first played live on the USS Stennis on October 31, 2004.

The Beautiful Side of Somewhere

The first single was sent out to radio in late March, 2005. It hit #5 on AAA radio.

Some of the background vocals are provided by drummer Fred Eltringham.

In reference to the line "I am ready to wake up / there in the exodus / on the beautiful side of somewhere, baby" Jakob notes, "I'm not 22 years old, and I've been around the block a few times. A lot of it can feel kind of exhausting. There is a point where you do want to get your head above water and just be there, wherever it is."

Here He Comes

Premiered as a slow, acoustic ballad during the "Back to California" tour, where Jakob and Rami played it during most of the acoustic sets on that tour. Jakob, Rami, and Fred played it during about 1/2 of their acoustic radio performances in March and April 2005. The version at these shows was different from the album version and different from the initial ballad, transforming into a fast-paced acoustic number.

Jakob comments on this song, "that image of being dragged around aimlessly and somewhat hopelessly by strings attached to your limbs is an image to work with."

Fred is the intro whistler.

We're Already There

Performed for the first time during the acoustic radio shows in March and April 2005.

God Says Nothing Back

This song, with "From The Bottom of My Heart," was one of the first songs written for Rebel, Sweetheart. Jakob says "those two songs came to me at the same time."

This song is one that everyone in the band agrees is one that reflects some of their finest work. Jakob notes, "In my efforts to cross new finish lines, I certainly felt something with that song. There's always a moment like that on a record. . . . I think that I'm in that song but I also think I'm incredibly not in that song. I don't think it's important that songwriters always be in their songs. A lot of it is observation." Greg concurs, "I think this is one of the best things we've ever done."

In a recent interview in Acoustic Guitar (August 2005), Jakob says of "God Says Nothing Back," that's "one of my proudest moments on the record. ... Maybe I succeeded in getting across those four things --God, time, love, and death-- that are endless. They've been there for thousands of years and they will be there tomorrow as well. But certainly current events are wrapped up in the motivation for writing the song."

The interview points out that the song is placed mid-way through the cd and that denotes that it's "pivotal." Jakob responds, "It is for me. Any thought that's really worth delving deeply into involves those four things. I'm not really sure what there is after God, time, love, and death. Take almost anything and you can draw a line directly to one of those four things."

Brendan plays the guitar solo after the third verse.

Back To California

This song was first played live on the USS Stennis on October 31, 2004.

This song served as the namesake for The Wallflowers' June 2004, where they toured towns, mostly in California. A poster was designed with the tour title, "Back To California," and included lyrics from the song: "mercury's rising, poppies in bloom," "the garden's only got four corners," "we've got California in our eyes," "back to your trenches, guard your borders."

I Am A Building

This song was first played in concert in Philadelphia in June 2004, when the band kicked off their summer tour for Rebel, Sweetheart. The song was played most nights thereafter.

Jakob comments, "there's a groove in that song that maybe we haven't gotten to before. That image of a thousand windows spread across a thousand floors. . . There's really nothing more stable or closed off than the image of a building without doors. No way in or no way out. So you're either locked in or you're locked out. But there's no changing or affecting what's standing there."

From The Bottom Of My Heart

This song, with "God Says Nothing Back," was one of the first songs written for Rebel, Sweetheart. Jakob says "those two songs came to me at the same time."

How Far You've Come

Played during the July 2003 "semi-acoustic tour," and recorded on KCRW's "New Ground" during July 2003, this song was the first song fans heard from Rebel, Sweetheart.

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