TRACK BY TRACK WITH JIM PETERICK

IT'S CRIMINAL - Actually a very positive song - despite the title - the idea is that its criminal to go through life with a rotten attitude when there are so many chances to take advantage of.  The key line is "its criminal - to possess the key to life yet be so cynical".  It's about everyone I've ever known who looks at the glass as half-empty instead of half-full.  I started this song back in '84 to be a part of Vital Signs by Survivor.  I played the unfinished song for Ron Nevison - he loved it but said we had enough for the record.  It took me till 2003 to find the time, singer and inspiration to finish it!  Eddie Breckenfeld, Clem Hayes, Christian Cullen and Mike Aquino own this track!"

GONE - "I walked into the studio one morning and my co-producer and fellow Ides Of March member Larry Millas was playing this great chord progression on the keyboard.  I immediately grabbed my trusty Sony recorder and taped it.  I immediately went to work - I knew this riff had AOR stamped all over it - for the next week I worked on it showing it to Larry as it developed.  When we thought we had it right I showed it to Toby.  When I heard him singing I knew it was as powerful as I hoped.  My favorite line is "heaven is hiding an angel" - something about a song in a minor key that gives it a haunting bitter sweetness.  I hope you can empathize with this guy in the song whose angel has left without a trace and is "gone".  Weird lyric of the song --- "is she wearing the sundress that goes with her eyes - is she starting to undress to rest for the night."

INTERRUPTED MELODY - "Another song that I started in the covered wagon days - back in like '87.  I was writing songs for what became Too Hot To Sleep.  This was one that I thought had big potential but couldn't really put it to bed - sometimes we have to live just a little longer to be able to finish a song.  I always loved the melody and the theatrical feel of the music and lyrics.  As I was going through old cassettes I came across this one and felt it would be perfect for Pride Of Lions - this time around the final lyric seemed to write itself."

SOUND OF HOME - "I was so pleased when Frontiers chose this song as the first single and video for the album.  It has to be one of my one or two favorites.  I had started it a few years ago - it was then called Sounds Of Home.  In Jan of '03 I went to my summer place with my wife and some friends - the energy was perfect and I finished the song that weekend.  The theme of this song is one of my favorites - the bittersweet longing we all have when we are separated from our loved ones - I used to say I missed most of the 80's just by being on the road and as much as I love it - I had to reacquaint with my wife and family when I finally got off the road.  In the video for this song Toby and I are filmed onstage at Chicago's Park West - it shows the fun, excitement and passion of being onstage playing the kind of music we love - those scenes are contrasted with footage of the girl waiting back home... scenes of her alone waiting and flashbacks of their good times together.  I think everyone can relate to this song in one way or another - the melody and chord structure are very much in the vein I have written most of my life - a lot of minor chords and superimposed chords contrasted with bright major chords.  Toby and I form a good contrast between verses (me) pre-chorus - (Toby and me) and chorus (Toby)."

PRIDELAND - "I was coming out of a massage a the health club where I word out - I was in a very mellow mood and my mind heard a particular sequence of chords and a very serene feeling - I was thinking about the lions in their wild habitat and I had written down a word earlier that I heard when I watched "Lion King" in its re-edited version.  The word was Prideland - I never heard that word before and suddenly it seemed like the perfect word for the Pride Of Lions album.  I was thinking album title at the time - but that was decided against in favor of the self-titled version...anyway I couldn't wait to get to a keyboard to try out what I heard in my head - I went out and bought a book on lions on the Serengheti Plain and got inspired with the whole social system of the lions - the young, the old, the male, the female...all having specific roles.  Suddenly it seemed to me that Toby was the young cub and I was the mature lion trying to impart whatever wisdom I could.  Musically and lyrically the song came together very quickly after that.  I am very pleased with the way it came out - it is one of those rare instances where it sounds exactly as I imagined it would."

UNBREAKABLE - "This song started life as one line from by good friend and co-writer Stephen Salzman (Zig Zag, Armageddon) "take the knife in your teeth as you climb the mast - take your life by the reigns and hold on" - I took off from there and Steve helped me put on the finishing touches - as you can hear it's very much in the Rocky mode - piledriving beat and a message of hope for anyone who has ever despaired - "when you think you've got the whole world in your hands, never think that life can't shatter all your plans".  We are never bigger than life - but we can always stand up to it and be "unbreakable".  By the way this was the first take from Toby!"

FIRST TIME AROUND THE SUN "The second song I wrote for POL - if there is one song that embodies my life philosophy, it is this one - the notion of every day being a new beginning is central to my whole energy system.  "This is our "day one" - first time around the sun".  Very much an early Toto feel on this one - again a duet between Toby and I - this one may take a few listens but I think it may get under your skin in a few tries!

TURN TO ME - "An uptempo barnburner very much in the "feels like love" "First night" wheel house - this one ain't rocket science - but it smokes!  Mike Aquino and I had a ball trading off leads at the end and just when you though it was gonna end, we play some more - we were having too much fun to stop!

MADNESS OF LOVE - "This is one of my most over the top melodramatic songs - kinda like queen meets survivor!  I think everyone can relate to the crazy things we do for love - well here's the theme song - everyone gets to show of their chops in the center section.  The part where the time signature changes from 6/8 to a 4/4 shuffle - I wrote this one and Turn To You in one desperate weekend after my record label rejected one of my other tunes!  Hilary Jones does an amazing job on this one - she is one hot drummer!

LOVE IS ON THE ROCKS - "This is the first song I completed for Pride Of Lions - in fact it was Toby's trail song, to see how everyone liked his voice.  Well he really nailed it didn't he !  This song is unusual for my lyrically because it talks about a love affair that is falling apart  - of course I offer hope on the horizon - "do we save this ship or do we go down trying."

LAST SAFE PLACE - "I wrote this song in April of 03 when America was in the midst of its confrontation with the mid east 0 everything seemed to be in turmoil and our illusion of invulnerability was being seviously challenged.  That was the mood I was in when I wrote the first line - "I though the world was a safe place - a calm space - street lights and tree-lined squares" - in times like these to be in the loving arms of family seems like the "last safe place."  

MUSIC AND ME - "In the same way that "Light Of 1000 Smiles" described the rock/stage experience back in '81 on Survivor's Premonition album - "Music and Me" get to the heart of my personal love affair with rock and roll - from the cradle to now.  When I was a young boy growing up in the suburbs of Chicago it seemed that I was afraid of everything - nuclear war - thunderstorms - tornados - disease - you name it.. When I finally stood on stage and played my first rock ad roll song (Kansas City - here I come) and heard the auplause - all my fears went away - because I had finally found my true calling.  I have been chasing that dream ever since and the tornadoes have stayed away!  Toby and I share lead vocals and again the World Stage band shines - Eddie Breckenfeld is absolutely untouchable on drums on this one.

STAND BY YOU - "One day in the studio Toby was playing this amazing part on the keyboard, I got out my recorder and started scatting words and melody right over Toby's changes.  Sometimes the mood of the chords just suggest the rest and this one was one of those times.  The next day I listened to the tape we made and practically the entire thing was perfect.  The concept of an unwaivering love is one of my favorite the - mes and when we  landed on the title, "Stand By You" we knew we had a song that just might resonate with our listeners.

SO DEADLY - "This is one of those songs that I ripped right from the headlines of the evening news.  There was a widely - covered story in America recently about a woman who mowed her unfaithful husband down in the driveway of their own house.  Her Mercedes was suddenly transformed into a lethal weapon.  I tried to capture the rage of all the feelings represented in such a crime of passion.  This song rocks with all the poison of the venom of love that makes each kiss potentially  "So Deadly'."