Most Challenging Song

​Cris: What was the most challenging song to create for the album "It's You"?

Joel Cummins, Umphrey's McGee: For Umphrey's McGee the creation process happens lots of ways. Sometimes it will be a couple of different people in the band who start it and then pass it off to someone else. Sometimes it will be one person who has an entire idea that is almost totally complete. But I think probably "Triangle Tear" was one of the more complicated songs that we've tried to arrange in a while. We actually simplified it quite a bit in the end.

Cris: Really? That was the simplified version on the album?

Joel: Yeah. We had about a nine or ten-minute arrangement when we started it. So that's the radio edit. (laughs) But there are a lot of different sections in that. I think that is something that's really become a hallmark of the Umphrey's McGee sound is having these really adventurous arrangements where there are these sectional things that come in and out. I think that one's pretty cool because it doesn't have a defined chorus so to speak. But it is certainly not lacking for interesting parts. That was one that Jake ( Cinninger) and I started at his studio, Boon Dock, in Michigan. What we did for that one was -- this is back when we were working on analog stuff doing pre-production -- we would actually try to get the arrangement, start to finish. He would play drums and I would play keyboards. And then he would go back and lay down bass and guitars after that. So that was kind of the method we used to record that one. Brendan then spent -- this is probably the longest I can remember him spending on a piece of music… he said, "I just don't feel like I have it yet." He took it and wrote lyrics and vocal melodies over the top of it. Finally, after a few months, he was like, "OK. I think I've got something here, guys. Let me know what you think." And so that's what we went with. It's a really cool vocal arrangement too. It's definitely got a lyrical bounce to it. 

(from episode 12 of the Bands To Fans podcast)