Date Recorded: May 4, 2010
Order in which song was made for project: 0 of 42 (was not made for Mind the Noise)
Instruments Played: Electric Guitar & loop pedal, Irish Tin Whistle, Melodica, Harmonica. Bass provided by Enoch “The Treeman” and keys by Marc Grunberg.

How they made it: This started off as a Marc Grunberg (a piano virtuoso who is friends with Danny) track. In April 2010, Michael was contacted by Chip Hiden who runs Chipapalooza, a fundraiser for Juvenile Diabetes, annually. It was at Chipapalooza 2009 where Michael won his first ever musical instrument, an autographed Paul Reed Smith Guitar. Chip wanted Michael to make a video showing off the guitar and where it had taken him since then. Truth be known, however, Michael hadn’t reached “rock star status” with the instrument quite yet, so he invested in the help of Danny and New Retro bassist, Enoch “The Treeman” Rowe to make a song.

So, they made a batch of kava kava (a muscle relaxing herb which aids cognition) and went to the drawing board only to find making a song from scratch with someone as untalented as Michael was more difficult than they could imagine. At that point, Danny opened up a song he recorded on the MPC with Marc a few days earlier. Enoch said, “That’ll work” and laid down the bass. Michael made a quick “noise loop” with the guitar which you hear at the beginning of the song, then began to layer the song with simple instruments he could play at the time: tin whistle, harmonica, and melodica. The song was not meant for Mind The Noise, but was added to the project because of a) the great transition from “Chaos in the Club” to “Ruined” and b) the fact it was a full song as opposed to just a 30 second clip like the rest of the album.

Origin of song title: Marc Grunberg’s filename for his song was “Marca04,” so when the crew remade the version and Danny thought they ruined a good song he labeled the file “Marca04 (ruined).” Michael took this and ran with it, naming it “Ruined.”

Upon initial release it was called “Charity Work.” The Chipapalooza video can be viewed here:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYuu5iHtQSI