Leave That Thing Alone: Background

“This instrumental is a kind of ‘Where’s My Thing?’ [on Roll the Bones] sequel.”—Robert Telleria, Merely Players

“Alex and I record all our jams and many times these happy moments where we really start grooving get dissected and transformed into songs. Jamming is really a recess. I think this is the best instrumental we’ve ever written.” (Guitar School)—Geddy in Merely Players

“Geddy had this little keyboard thing for the choruses and I had this clean verse thing kicking around from the last tour. It’s a song that goes through many moods and creates nice colors. The solo was from my original Alesis ADAT version [digital recording of one of their jams]: just a solo I threw on, but it fit. It has almost a Celtic flavor.” (Guitar School)—Alex in Merely Players

“‘Leave That Thing Alone’ is built around rhythm and blues bass-drum interplay. But to make it original, I had to change up parts. In the second verse I go into a Nigerian beat, like something you’d hear on a King Sunny Ade record. Later in the song I go into a quasi-jazz pattern, and all these things are introduced for our own entertainment as well as to make the piece more interesting.” (Modern DRummer)—Neil in Merely Players
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