"Burn to Shine" was written on my favorite beat up acoustic BB. I was playing around with tunings and dropped both the high and low e strings down a full step. Hit the d chord and it sounded really full and open. I could hear the whole chiming style line over the top in my head….I had visioned something sort of like the harmonics from Puddle Of Mudd's blurry song or something to that effect. To play the harmonics you have to down tune the e and b string a half step. There were some studio shenanigans that went into creating the chime effect but you can easily recreate it live. I'm a massive fan of Alice in Chains and I love the way they write lyrics with sort of a call and response style between Layne and Jerry. I always loved the line "Misery loves company" it's very true in many ways. That was how the song started out with one line. "Some times you've got to Burn to Shine" has been something I've kind of lived by….some of the best things people have accomplished in life have come from just saying f*** it and throwing caution to the wind…throw a big hale mary pass and see where it gets you. I had been in and out of hospitals for a few years off and on and was super determined to defy what all the doctors said was not possible. This song became my anthem. I was wound up pretty tight at the time and was maybe not making the best decisions in life "livin like a loaded gun" "rusted was my halo" it may sound cheesy but this tune sort of gave me some light at the end of the tunnel….that same light had been a train several times before. It's by far one of our best live tunes. Jamie Woolford came up with some amazing backing harmony vocals which make the chorus really stand out. There are quite a few guitar tracks in the chorus with a stand out octave line which sits really well with the melody. I blended a few things for the verse clean tones, an acoustic doubled, a simulated twelve string and a sample sitar sound. Marlette played the bass line and Mike Hill from the funk junkies absolutely crushed this track on drums.