The Material

One of the things about Avalanche's original music that created such an instantaneous appeal for the public, was the depth, quality, and honesty of the songs. The songwriting was simple, but sophisticated, and both Mark and I were writing the best material of our lives, both seperately, and collaboratively. Although we were coming up with huge amounts of music and lyrics, these were not "assembly line" songs. They were thoughtful, personal, sometimes political, and very often autobiographical, and much of what we were writing about in those songs expressed what a large segment of the population was feeling and experiencing...so it was very easy for the public to "identify" with the music. I know that Mark and I were both unwilling to settle for "filler" material, and that we both insisted on getting the musical and lyrical moods to "match up". We wanted every song to be powerful... I personally spent a great deal of my time on my lyrics. I still do. The trick is to say something that anyone can relate to...but in a way that says it differently than anyone else may have already said it...to be fresh, and truthful, without sounding arrogant or "preachy". Nobody ever heard one of our songs and said.."oh, that's the same thing that such and such a band just did".  Our material covered a lot of territory. We had songs about music, women, poverty, unemployment, war and peace, relationships, partying, drugs and drug dealing, addiction....in effect... the life that most people our age were "living"at that time. Love songs had a softer edge, drug songs had a heaviness, party songs were rambunctious...we really fine-tuned the writing process...and because we were writing about ourselves... when we sang them...there was the conviction in our voices that only comes from truly believing what you're saying. And it was very apparent. And it worked...