This song was written in the most interesting manner of all the songs on Infinite Sky. When I came up with the song name “The Half”, I had no intention of any type of continuation on that theme. When Tyler got the idea to revisit some of the musical themes from The Half to compose his massive ending to the album, he posited the idea to me to call the last song “The Whole”. Of course, I loved this idea and immediately got to work on the lyrics.
This song features the biggest cast of guest performers out of any song on this record. Tyler came up with the idea of enlisting a bunch of our friends to sing a sort of gang-vocal choir part in the outro of the song. Our three primary guests Mirabella Phinney (The Half, Ten Twenty-Five), Andrew Carrington (The Half), and Bryce Maopolski (Ten Twenty-Five) were joined by Allie Sandt, AJ Horton, Michael Aaron, Teddy Holly, Zach Torncello and myself to deliver this performance.
Mirabella Phinney – Choir vocals
Andrew Carrington – Choir vocals
Bryce Maopolski – Choir Vocals
Allie Sandt – Choir Vocals
AJ Horton – Choir vocals
Michael Aaron – Choir vocals
Teddy Holly (And Allie Sandt again) – Choir vocals
Feels a bit strange to type out my name with a third-person connotation.
This choir section was recorded in about a half hour. Tyler talked through the three different vocal licks, then sent us all into the live room. We stood in a semi-circle around a single AT 4050 microphone while Tyler conducted from the other side of the glass in the control room. I wore the headphones, with the instrumental part in my ears. With Tyler holding up between one and three fingers through the glass to signify which part we were singing, and me being the middle man between the vocalists and the instrumental part, we were able to get this part recorded pretty quickly.
We are so thankful to our friends for being willing to join us in this project.
Aside from the choir part, all vocal parts in this song were performed by Trystan. All instrumental parts performed by Tyler.
The Process
This song had a bit of a strange workflow, in that the vocals were written in piecemeal. Tyler initially showed me the instrumental up until the piano break into the outro. I tried to remember what I could from that first listen and started working on lyrics and melodic ideas. A few weeks later, Tyler sent me the full instrumental and just told me to quote the piano melody in some way in the outro. He and I both wanted this to be a big, cathartic ending to the album, and I hope that you as the listener feel that we achieved that. Tyler suggested which parts should have screams and which parts should have clean vocals, and from there we divided.
A favorite melodic part of this song is in the lyrics “This is I. Mine alone”, as the vocal melody on “Mine alone” absolutely should not work with the underlying harmony from a theoretical standpoint, yet somehow it doesn’t sound “wrong”. Recording this part in the studio, Tyler told me after the first take that the part I just sang didn’t work with the chord. After he explained the dissonance, I could clearly hear that he was right. We went back and listened to that take and sort of shrugged our shoulders and agreed that it somehow worked even though it was pretty objectionable to any music theorist.
Another key moment for me in this song is at 6:50. In the part breakdown that Tyler gave me to write vocals around, he referred to this part as the “Kayo Dot freakout section”, which I still think is a perfect way to describe it. Kayo Dot is a musical project that Tyler and I take great inspiration from. If there is one album that’s influenced our writing more than anything else, that album is “Choirs of the Eye” by Kayo Dot. To have a part in our song that we feel even scratches the surface of imitating the magic of our musical heroes just seems right.
Gear
Tyler recorded the piano parts at the end of this song on a Steinway piano in Studio A at SUNY Oneonta, which was captured by a Neumann microphone. An Audio Technica microphone used for the choir vocals. All guitars, plugins, and other microphones are identical to those used in Smite.
Meaning
This song is the end of the story. One final look back at all memories positive and negative, and how some feelings tainted the purity of others. One last reflection. As always, interpret the lyrics however they may resonate with you. Full album lyrics can be found here.
Finally…
We hope you enjoy this song as a closing of the album. As always, if you have any questions about the creation of this song or anything else in regard to our music, DM us on Instagram @eleseer_official
Eleseer 
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