How We Wrote “Mexico”

About 20 months ago, Steven Jasik and I sat down to play music together for the very first time.

But I should probably back up about ten years.

Steven and I had known each other for a decade. We got along fantastically, we both knew the other was a musician, and somehow, in all that time, we had never actually sat down and played together.

Then Steven’s wonderful wife came into my IV center one day. While she was sitting with me getting an IV, I told her, “I really need to play music with Steven.”

Her response was basically: Yes, you absolutely do, and I’m going to make that happen.

And she did.

Not long after that, Steven and I finally got together for a jam session. I always say Steven is one of my favorite people, and I really mean it. There was an immediate comfort to playing together. No awkward feeling-each-other-out period. We just started playing.

And then Steven played this riff.

It was the main riff that would eventually become “Mexico.”

Something about it pushed a magic button in my head.

Suddenly, I could see an entire story.

It wasn’t something that had actually happened to me. It was more like watching a movie appear in my imagination while Steven was playing. I pictured someone traveling in Mexico and having this incredible, mind-altering spiritual experience. There was a shaman, ayahuasca, a church, hallucinations and this mysterious person he had never met before who had somehow saved him a seat.

From there, the story started writing itself.

These two strangers go through this intense experience together and form this unexpected connection. Afterward, they spend the next few days together in Mexico, hanging out on the beach, still wrapped up in what they had just experienced and feeling strangely connected to one another.

That became the world of “Mexico.”

When Steven and I were constructing the song, I came up with a bridge that originally had a much more Mexican, almost mariachi-inspired feel. We eventually transformed it into something completely different while keeping the same underlying chords. If you listen closely, I think you can still feel a little of that Spanish/flamenco-style guitar progression hiding underneath what it became.

And then, of course, I had to sneak a little bit of my real life into this completely fictional story.

My wife Carisa has told me that I’m funny when I drink. Apparently she likes the way I talk and the way my brain works after a few drinks. Thank God for that.

I always thought that was funny, so naturally, it found its way into a song.

That first writing session really became the beginning of something much bigger for Steven and me. We discovered that we genuinely love creating music together. We have a ridiculous amount of fun, but we also work incredibly hard. When we record, Steven and I tend to be the guys who are still there during those marathon 15-hour studio sessions, doing the heavy lifting and obsessing over the little details until the song feels right.

We eventually recorded “Mexico” with Jason Murgo, who helped us produce our first album and also played drums and other instruments on the recordings. Jason is an incredibly talented musician and producer, and he helped us take this strange little story that appeared in my head during that first jam session and turn it into an actual record.

Looking back, there’s something pretty special about the fact that “Mexico” came from the very first time Steven and I ever sat down to play together.

Ten years of knowing each other.

One nudge from Steven’s wife.

One jam session.

One guitar riff.

And suddenly I could see a church, a shaman, two strangers, a beach, a few hallucinations and several days in Mexico that never actually happened.

And somehow, out of all of that, Jet Lag Motel began.