This episode of our Song Spinner series, which takes you into the hearts and minds of local musicians and their creative process, reveals the story of "Tunnel" by Sodium Lights.

BIO: Sodium Lights are Mat Tarbox, Alex Pellish and Rich Freitas, with a loose consortium of friends and colleagues called upon as needed.

SOUND: In former lives, the core trio played with each other in a variety of Mystic-based pop and rock bands, including 17 Relics, Delta of Venus and Low-Beam. Sodium Lights, though, eschews the conventional guitar/bass/drums trappings. Tarbox, Freitas and Pellish have traded in live performance and rarely even use instruments. Instead, they generate tracks and rhythms on computer, improvising soundscapes and dance beats. The cut-and-paste tunes are then topped with lyrics and melodies, frequently from guest artists, and the finished product is a spinoff you'd associate with everyone from Goldfrapp and AIR to LCD Soundsystem and Girl Talk.

HOW "TUNNEL" CAME ABOUT: As with most of their material, the song first takes form through a series of created samples and experimentation. Any drum beat or riff or sonic texture is manipulated and distorted and extrapolated through computer magic. Gradually, rhythms, melodic possibilities and ambient layers begin to form. In this case, because they had to name the audio file to save it, they arbitrarily picked the word "Tunnel."

WHAT HAPPENED NEXT: As the piece coalesced, the mood reminded them of their friend and longtime bandmate, singer Dawn Estabrooks, and they asked her to take the track and see if she could come up with a melody and lyrics. At that point, it was a rambling, 12-minute magnum opus. Estabrooks, listening during job commutes, came up with the melody first, humming nonsense, and then the idea of "Tunnel vision" began to resonate. Ultimately, that concept morphed into a song about a stalker. She showed the guys the work, and they thought it was an instant fit. They edited the original version down to a manageable length that worked with her lyrics, and the track was mixed and completed.

FOR MORE FUN: Though, by design, Sodium Lights is not a performing act, "Tunnel" is represented on their brand-new alum, "Transtulit," which is available via download from mysticmusicarchives.org. The band anticipates receiving actual CDs within the next week. In the meantime, you can hear "Tunnel" online at theday.com.