14. People Reprise II: “hold it back”

Sam Schelin - 2025 LIU

This is the second of the Sweeney Ballad–style interludes. From the beginning, it was always meant to feel like a warning. A moment of dark sweetness offered right before the drop. The kind of calm that only exists to make what comes next hurt more.

Marguerite Boone and Sam Schelin’s voices blended so beautifully that in rehearsal I added a slide. There’s something almost supernatural about hearing two vocalists slide together and never lose the distance between each other’s voices. That kind of control is rare. There is zero autotune on their voices here. (Actually, there’s no autotune anywhere on the album. How do you like them egg rolls, Mr Goldstone?)

That ping pong guitar delay comes from a very specific place. I first heard it on the closing soundboard recording of Carrie on Broadway…yes, the 1980s one. There’s this unhinged delay on “Do Me a Favor” that almost sounds like a gunshot. I recreated that exact setting a long time ago just to play around with.  …Ya know…like a normal functioning adult.

Marguerite Boone - 2025 LIU

Anywho, it sat around for years, looking for the right moment. This was it. I warmed the tone slightly, but the bones are the same.

Because the delay was so precise, it was added after tracking. Which meant that in the studio, poor Jeff had to play these tiny eighth-note fragments that sounded completely absurd on their own. No context. No payoff. Just faith. To his credit, he didn’t complain once. Absolute pro.

I hope he thinks the result was worth it.