Patrol’s ‘Zirconium’ Is an Album for a Lost Friend

In 2006, Patrol released their debut album, 'Destinations,' to much critical acclaim and support in Seattle. The album was marked with odd time signatures and quick rhythmic change-ups, giving the band some kind a sonic mathematical Soundgarden feel. But in 2008, when the band began to write the now-released 'Zerconium,' it had been decided the band needed to step out a bit from what was so comfortable. "It was to all over the map," Vocalist/guitarist Doug Lorig told Noisecreep describing their last album. "It didn't have a consistent mood to the music, so my idea when we went to do a new record was to develop a pattern that is consistent through the whole record."

The mood of Patrol's new album finds riffs traveling down darker paths, giving birth to longer songs and losing all of the drastic in-song mood changes. The biggest change this time around, though, came from Lorig's lyrics. Lorig, who describes many of his past penned lyrics as "phrases that sounded kind of cool together" decided to push himself to write about more literal topics -- the result of watching a close friend lose a battle with cancer while writing the album.

"I wrote a lot of the lyrics about a month before we went into the studio. I would spend two hours a day refining the lyrics the best I could, and unfortunately during that time Jon [Spalding] was starting to wear down and time was of the essence, and that time was a real inspiration for the lyrics."

Jon Spalding was somewhat of a figure in the Seattle underground, thanks to his work contributing to album by bands in the city, such as his studio work on the debut full length from Narrows. But after a four-year battle with cancer, Spalding died in 2008. Spalding spent much of his last year finishing the lifelong dream of a solo record under the name Jon Spalding's Loveland. "I really think that record kept Jon alive for a couple of months, because he had the goal of getting it done," Lorig remarked. "The second he was done with that record, his health took a huge collapse."

The time that Spalding was recording was also the time Patrol had booked to work at the Red Room Recording Studio with Matt Bayles. "He was trying to finish his record when we were trying to record ours, so we pushed ours back so he could get in time with Matt and Chris [Common]," Lorig recalled. "We'd have time blocks open and we'd be like, 'If you haven't finished the Jon record yet, push us back.' I don't even understand how he finished some of those vocals, because he could barely finish 10 words without having to breathe in. He just didn't have that much lung capacity; the miracle of studio and Jon's will to get it done."

The last track on 'Zirconium' entitled 'A Real Diamond in a Zirconium World' is a song dedicated to the spirit and friendship that Spalding gave to those close to him, and the song came from Lorig's subconscious. "I had this dream with Jon in it, and I woke up and had that phrase in my mind. It felt like a good way to describe Jon because he was always the real deal. He was always the genuine article. And at that time, I felt that was a good way to describe him, because I felt like there was a lot of fake people out there -- and Jon was the real deal.

"I was actually able to play the album for Jon a week before he died," Loris says. "It was really important to me that he got to hear it."