I'm attracted to the idea of writing music that is somehow "about" the kind of music I love. My background as a die-hard rock fan has always informed my own music to a greater or lesser degree - but I wanted to write a piece that was more explicit about it. Pete Townshend's guitar work seemed to be a good place to start, and there are two recorded instances of his work with The Who that provided positive springboards for Slapback. The first is an archetypal two-chord pattern (complete with requisite pedal tone!) that appears towards the end of "Can You See The Real Me" from Quadrophenia, which in Slapback is treated like a motorcycle stole by an amateur thief: pilfered, taken back to the garage, chopped in various ways, repainted - then put back out on the streets with just enough resemblance to the original to invite suspicion from law enforcement.

The second is the extended jam on "My Generation" on Live at Leeds, in particular the passage the liner notes describe as "some excellent soloing by Pete who appears to play against his own echo bouncing off the back of the hall." This image led me to the idea of casting the entirety (almost) of Slapback as a 50/50 partnership between the guitarist and delay unit, with the latter set to only one echo or "slapback". The result is an extended 12-minute long hocket of a complex nature, with the notes batting back and forth dizzily from one speaker to another - all preferably at a suitably high decibel level.