Retrograde was one of those bolt from the blue songs that literally came to me in a dream the day before I was about to record the last song ( a totally different one) for the record. At the time there were a few things going on that were pretty key to inspiring the song. The first, was an incident that swept up the small community where I live. It’s a tiny town with a population of about 100 people (including the surrounding farms) there are no police, no shops, there is only a small road house. The story was that there was a guy and girl on the run from police after the guy “saved” the girl from her boyfriend, big punch-ups, the works. Full wild west style. They were on the run, apparently hiding out at farms, stealing fuel and camouflaging their car. There was a huge police presence for weeks trying to catch this romeo and juliet couple, they were total renegades. I love the Bonnie and Clyde, Thelma and Louise feel of a police chase / getaway. The other inspiration was a book I was reading called M.P about Michael Peterson who was a GOD of single fin surfing in the 60s/70s in Australia. He was a very misunderstood, shy and mysterious character, he hated fame and was notorious for getting up to mischief. I thought when I was reading it, this sounds like my type of guy (haha). He also sounded like the kind of guy that if I was living in the 60s / 70s and met him I could imagine just getting in the car and running down the coast, or running from authorities (he was always in trouble). I was only a few chapters in when I had the dream of the song and that life, turns out much later in the book he did do a legendary runaway surf trip all the way down the East coast of Australia, hiding out and chased by the cops the entire way, so my dream wasn’t far off! The chorus came to me right before I woke up and was about to make the 8 hour drive to Perth to start recording the last song. In my dream this huge crowd was singing along to the chorus. When I woke up I was so upset because it wasn’t real, but the melody stuck with me! I called my guitarist and producer to tell them to brace themselves for a change of plans. That night when I got to the city I spent a half an hour on it and it was done. To me “Retrograde” is most in the spirit of where the record was born. It’s the last frontier, a place of run-away bandits, living for the moment and embracing the wild and intoxicating spirit of youth. Those moments and legends live on forever.