Search - Water :: The Abyss

NUPARIEL CHRIS COMSTOCK writes us from Denver, in color: we first thank spirit, for providing this opportunity for us to express these pieces of our lives to each of you all out there... thank you. me and cliff met about 5 yrs. ago when i moved here from my hometown, big-sandy in east texas, to his hometown of denver, colorado. instantly, we connected inside the music...as i recall, i was at a friend's house with my wife (at the time), virginia, and our few month old son, chassan. i was playing 'purple haze' when he walked in, came right up to me and sat down in front of me, full attention on my fingers channeling out jimi's riffs. since then it's been nothin but magical collaboration as we expand each others horizons in the beautiful world of music... at the time, cliff was taking guitar lessons and was eager to be around other guitarists and soak up whatever he could. the first thing i showed him was that i was moving into a totally different approach in music that didn't involve 'lessons' or 'tablature'. having been self-taught and playing only 'by ear', i didn't know many chord names and still don't. it was a mutual exchange, as he taught me the names of the chords i had been playing and i taught him technique. cliff's mom had recently passed on and i could tell he was takin' on guitar to express the depth of his pain and emotion- this i could see right away... the first composition he played for me- and the first one he had actually came up with was dedicated to his mom and is the music you hear on the first track of this album- 'rollin'. this was also the first song we ever played on stage together (he played rhythm- i played a solo i had come up with to accompany it). this was at a cool little bluez saloon called 'ziggies'. in denver, colorado. i don't know if would have ever gotten up on stage if it weren't for cliff- dragging me up there that night- well that and a few drinks considered... i put words on cliffs' composition after finding myself in a crazy love-triangle with my ex-wife and a girl from work i was dating- all under the same roof... the words rushed to me so fast that night and it was completely finished by the time i was moved out and living in a motel 6 in lakewood, colorado. ever since that night it seems that's just how my songs come to me- i will usually play the music and then a few days later the words will come- and come fast. this has not ALWAYS been the case, but as of late seems to always be. one instance would be 'intro to foreva' (coming up on the 2nd album). i get this tune stuck in my head and play it over and over. a few days later, we meet our flute player, flee, playing the flute on the beach. he turns out to be a poet extrordinare and i find a poem called 'intro to foreva'. the music gets very synchronistic at times.... i want to give a brief summary of the magic that is contained in this album, in each song... we went to the depths of our soul to record this album and this is exactly what we express back into this album in each song. i always say we're just now 'crawling out' of the abyss and moving onto our next project, with more leeway this time: 'iceberg'- our second album. it feels like we have so much support on this one and that the hardest parts of being on the streets and homeless recording an album are behind us now. 'ROLLIN' took on a more reggae-ish sound when me and cliff were visiting a soulmate of ours, solara, in santa monica. the vibes were so intense and we came out of it all with so many more stories that comes out in our music-- like, 'santa monica', written by cliff and dedicated to solara after i introduced them to each other... 'she said take off all your clothes- every vase has a rose' was the only line i put in this one- which to me captures a lot of what the environment was like at solaras' 'goddess temple'... while all of this was going on, yet another s