It’s a fairly pedantic and existential concept to be honest, but also a very personal one. The human body deteriorates on it’s own, of course, but as the poet has said, sleep is death’s brother.
The song Phlegmatics is more about the internal struggle between lethargy and productivity whereas the other two reflect a bit on misanthropy. I suppose it’s a sort of digestion on the mental level. The fruit of that processing is phlegm which accumulates until we wake up and expectorate. There is also the idea that while we sleep, our bodies recuperate and our minds deal with what has been imposed upon us. In a nutshell, that song (with Phlegmatics & Carry Stress In The Jaw) explores corporeal reactions to outside forces the gradual decline of the human body due to social interactions. I didn’t know it was a trilogy until I wrote parts 2 & 3 and realized I had a running theme that originated with Slowly Growing Deaf. We sat there in our rehearsal studio with our instruments staring at each other with no idea what to do. I still remember Danny, Trey and I getting together the first time after the ’92 tour. I have often referred to DV as our “identity crisis” album. not fully, but heading in that direction, which would solidify by the time we got to ‘California’. It was less about ‘let’s jam and create something’ and more about ‘here’s a concept here’s what I have in mind’.
Also I think each of us was becoming more confident and secure as distinctive writers. Ultimately our writing approach was the same, just more informed. So once we started trying to figure out what our next musical move was we brought those new ideas to the table. We were hungry for different music and culture and we used that time to research and absorb, individually finding things on our own as adults in “the big city”. Looking back I think that was a big learning period for all of us. I would say that after our first tour of ’92 we were completely done with that music and it took Danny, Trey and I a solid year to even get together in the same room with instruments. It’s true that instead of hanging out on campus where we were all going to school, by the early ‘90s we had relocated to San Francisco and were individually pursuing multiple music ventures. I’m not sure I’d say our approach was different.
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