Guitarist Chris Caffery (Savatage, Trans-Siberian Orchestra) continues to take a track-by-track look at his 2005 solo album, W.A.R.P.E.D. He offers an inside look at the song "State Of The Head" below.

Caffery: "This song was one of the last written and recorded for the CD. The lyrics were the first thing written and come with an amusing story.

I was in Europe on my press tour for the Faces CD. On this trip I was basically in a different country every day for two weeks! Most of the flights were so early in the morning and I was traveling alone. It was totally exhausting but kinda fun and very adventurous! 

I was flying into Warsaw, Poland for the very first time. I had never played there with Savatage. I was so excited to go to a totally new place. I arrived there early in the morning and take the taxi to my hotel. Now, the purpose of this trip was to meet with my local record label and to do interviews in person with the press from that country. We all know the Polish stereotypes, and having some Polish in my family tree I can relate and also poke fun as well... this is where it gets amusing.

I arrive at my hotel. First off, I'm in room 312 on the second floor which made me giggle. I phone my record company guy and he tells me I have 5 interviews by phone. So here it is, I flew from Paris to Warsaw to talk on the phone! He was supposed to meet me for dinner, however he had 'forgotten' it was his anniversary and needed to take his wife out.  So, that was my day. Five phone interviews in my hotel room! A flight all the way from Paris to Warsaw for a phone!

I did finish the interviews and venture out into the city for some traditional Polish food and some photos. I had another flight early in the morning and returned to room 312 to get a little sleep.

Upon watching the BBC news channel I saw a story about the war. The Iraq army had a prisoner of war. The beheading thing was becoming a common act at this time. I saw the soldiers with heir prisoner making their demands.

'72 hours to remove all the troops from the holy land or the infidel would die' At that point I decided to write this song...

The state of his head was truly up to the head of the state!

This song represented the way I really loved to be singing at that point. The range was free and I used all the timbers of my voice. It was fun to finally be singing confidentially and with command. The drums and bass were Jeff Plate and Dave Z once again. The rest is me...including the voice speaking at the beginning and the middle with the attempt at a foreign accent!

We did place some crazy percussion loop in there as well to help drive the song along in parts. It's a fun metal listen!

Peace!"

 

Check out Caffery's rundown of the other tracks on W.A.R.P.E.D:

- "Home Is Where The Hell Is"
- "God Damn War"
- "Fool, Fool"
- "Iraq Attack"
- "W.A.R.P,E.D."