Stage 11

"'I'll Take It All' is one of our favorites, because it captured a moment in our early days as a band. Diego and I were preparing for an open mic one day, when I came up with a rhythm using some unique chord structures I'd recently learned. I just couldn't get this rhythm out of my head, which is always a good sign. Diego started singing along and came up with a pretty good melody -- no solid lyrics, but that didn't matter.

The song was only hours old when we packed up and headed to the Stone Bar in Hollywood. Evan had been out of town that day, so he had no clue about the song. I had just told him about the song's time signature when he got to the bar. We ended up being the last ones to go on that night, which worked out well. Why? Because after we did our two songs I asked if we could play a song that we'd come up with earlier that day. Diego immediately looked at me like I was crazy, since he had no lyrics, but I just smiled and pushed him back onstage.

I launched into the opening riff with Evan figuring it out on the fly. Soon the melody that we had worked on at home was gone, and Diego was flowing in a way I'd never heard before! He began singing about what he was seeing: our friends having a great time, drinking, dancing and showing their support for what we were doing. It quickly became the theme of Diego's lyrics and ultimately the song. When we finished, the reaction from the crowd let us know we had just done something special. Now, if only Diego could remember the lyrics!

Fortunately for us, our good friend Don Tonic was set up to record the performances that night and surprised us with a copy. After listening to it, we realized we wanted to keep about 85% of Diego's spontaneous lyrics and the new melody line. With a little tuning 'I'll Take It All' was officially born. It quickly become a favorite closing song at our shows as it sums up the night of good vibes and great people."

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