Rockin' with the Flow

The first album is always an enigma. Where did the inspiration come from? Why is some of the magic missing there ever after? How did it all come together?

Rockin with the Flow was recorded in march of 1979 at the Dewey studios in San Francisco. The tracks were laid down in a one week period. The band was living at the studio for the week and pretty much spent all their time either recording or partying and sleeping. Much of the creative energy came from this total immersion technique. In the words of lead guitarest Morgan Smith "That was a crazy week. We were jamming, recording, writing songs non stop"
"Some of the best material was recorded when we were pissed off". "The week was essentially a blur and we never did figure out how we did it all."
Perhaps it is the newness of the experience that makes a bands first effort the most magical. To be sure subsequent Space Chords albums were very good and 'Sooner or Later' even exceeded the sales of 'Rockin with the Flow'. But Rockin' was the only album that had the original lineup. It was also the only album that was recorded with the total immersion technique. I again was able to interview Morgan Smith, lead guitarest for the Chords and get some insight on the recording of that pivotal album.

hotair : Lets start with the songwriting. What was the inspiration for the songs recorded.
MS: Many were great jams that we put lyrics to later. 'Rockin with the Flow' was that way. We had a great jam, listened to the playback and decided it was a song. So we scored lyrics and re-corded it with vocals.
hotair:How about 'Phonecall'?
MS:That one is sort of funny. Yeah, we were jamming a bit and the phone rang. I shouted 'phone call' and we went into this funky jam immediately. It was pretty cool. I scored lyrics about waiting for a phone call. It was actully sort of a love song about waiting for a girl to return a call.
hotair : How about Midway?
MS: Midway was a tune that a friend of ours John Reece played bass. He started playing a line and I figured out some chords that worked. Scored lyrics etc.
hotair:And of course 'Crazy Summer Feeling'
MS : Oh yeah.. Good ole CSF... That is probably the oldest Chords song. I wrote that in the fall of '78 before the Chords were really even formed. It was already written as a complete song so we just laid it down. Had some good jams with it.
hotair:And Cocaine?
MS : Just an old fav. We covered it best we could. I think it turned out pretty well.
hotair : How was the mixing down of the tracks?
MS : It was mostly done as a live/studio style recording. We didn't add any new tracks. Just made sure the balance was good and equalization correct.
hotair : Was there a lot of splitting hairs over which songs to include on the album?
MS: Not too much. It was pretty clear which tracks were the best.
hotair:How about the title track 'Rockin with the Flow'. How did that one come about?
MS:We'll the band was jamming in the studio and I was out. I returned and started to play with them but I was in a really bad mood. So I was playing hard but not thinking it was any good. Later when we listened to the playback, it was crackling with energy. So we made that a track.
hotair:Do you remember that week recording as a good time?
MS: Yes and no. It was fun at times but also work. We had decided to record a real album and that meant it had to be good. If we just goofed off we would've ended up with a bunch of jams but not a publishable work.