This edition of our Song Spinner series, which takes you into the hearts, minds and hands of local musicians and their creative processes, reveals the story behind “Painkiller Morning” by Vince Tuckwood.

BIO: Brit-born Vince Tuckwood is a true renaissance dude. Not only is he a successful independent management consultant, he’s a multi-instrumentalist/songwriter whose creative appetite has long-marinated in the art of such follks as Johnny Marr, Neil Finn/Crowded House, REM’s Peter Buck and David Gilmour/Pink Floyd. In the mid-’90s back in England, Tuckwood fronted a Britpop act called Grope.

After moving to Waterford, he’s been extremely active in the local music scene as a player, writer and producer. As representative activities, Tuckwood’s solo band is called Monkey68; he plays lead guitar for Anne Castellano & The Smoke; he’s co-producing the new Nancy Parent album; and, with Craig Johnson, he co-hosts the Common Ground Open Mic each Wednesday in the pub at New London’s Bulkeley House.

Tuckwood is also the author of three novels, a screenplay and numerous poems, and is a proud husband to Jane and father to Elise and Kyra.

FROM THE COBWEBBED PAST: Whilst adjusting the pickups on his Fender Stratocaster one December morning, Tuckwood was noodling around with random chords and riff snippets when he felt the odd sensation that the guitar was dictating his fingering (as opposed to the other way around). Odder still: Tuckwood realized he was exclusively playing structures and bits of songs he’d written two decades ago for his band Grope.

“It was like the guitar was haunted,” Tuckwood says. “I couldn’t actually remember some of the chords, but the subconscious is weird. Muscle memory had taken over and my Strat brought those chords back! Plus, as I realized what I was doing, I randomly looked up and saw an old Grope set list taped to my studio wall. It hit me that none of those old songs had ever been recorded.” Tuckwood instantly understood he’d have to rectify that. The resultant album is called “Grope” in homage to the band, and “Painkiller Morning” is one of those songs.

HOW “PAINKILLER MORNING” CAME TO BE: Admittedly, not too many pop songs are about contact dermatitis as it applies to one’s hands. But, as an organic chemistry student in the late ’80s, Tuckwood had exposed his hands to acetone and, in possible reaction to some of the compounds therein, the skin on his hands hardened to bark-like consistency. To stretch his fingers was to cause the skin to crack and bleed. It was an incredibly agonizing and protracted condition and temporarily derailed his musical career. At the affliction’s worst, Tuckwood would have to bend his fingers back against the bed frame to even get them to move. In all, Tuckwood lost significant use of his hands for 15 years and he gravitated to corporate life and away from music. Anxiety, migraines and acid-stomach reflux all manifested, and the titular painkiller came into play. Ultimately, his hands healed, and a song about being physically unable to play a song became musical inspiration.

KURT KNOWS OF WHICH YE SPEAK: Tuckwood says the physical distress that inspired “Painkiller” also reminded him of the Nirvana song “Pennyroyal Tea,” which Kurt Cobain wrote in part about his own depression and well-documented stomach distress.

THE STRUCTURE: Because of the contact dermititis, Tuckwood had a very difficult time making barre chords, which require stretching one’s index finger across the entire neck of the guitar. To compensate, Tuckwood used a lot of open-string chords with simpler fingering patterns that often result in droning, haunting sound clusters. He used a lot of three-digit fifth chords, including the verse step down. For the chorus, Tuckwood went to an “old reliable” favorite chord: E minor. He laughs, “E minor’s not quite the saddest of all chords, but it’s E minor! What can you say about it? E minor, C and A minor. I’m not lifting from myself, but it’s definitely part of my cauldron. I live around those chords a lot of the time, along with a slipped in B minor.”

ALTERNATE HOOK: While recording “Painkiller Morning,” Tuckwood decided to change the hooky melody line of the verse. The idea to do so actually surprised him: “It’s a hard thing to reinvent a melody you’ve been singing for 25 years. But I wasn’t happy with the melody I had for the start of the verse. I didn’t think it hit hard enough.

At home, Tuckwood works from the dining room in his family’s Waterford home. With its soothing, olive green walls, windows overlooking a front porch and a generous front lawn, and an open kitchen from whence the tea kettle whistles in key, Tuckwood finds creative comfort and therein recrafted the “Painkiller” verse melody. As always, his dog Rocco and cats Egypt and Sahara watch supportively. Not so much the gekko Chomper.

OPEN YOUR EARS: Tuckwood released the “Grope” album earlier this year and it’s available for purchase, along with various other recordings and publications, at vtuckwood.net. Also access reverbnation.com/monkey68 to learn and hear more. Though there are no immediate Monkey68 or Anne Castellano shows on the calendar, you can see Tuckwood at 7 p.m. each Wednesday at the Common Ground Acoustic Open Mic, the Bulkeley House Saloon, 112 Bank St., New London. Request “Painkiller Morning” and he’ll probably be delighted to share.