Since its inception into the Cairo catalogue, "Sink or Swim" has been the finale of every show we've played, so it was an obvious choice to end the album with this song. I (JP) think the feel of this track is really its defining characteristic, as it combines a melancholic sound with an upbeat and driving rhythm. This certainly makes for strange bedfellows, but I think it is very effective at evoking a feeling out of the listener.

This song has always been one of my favorites to play live, as it brings a great amount of energy, and was equally one of my favorites to record. For a song that is a fairly straight ahead rock number, it probably received the most studio magic out of any song on the album. When it comes to music, I am a full out gear head, and FaderMaster studios certainly played right into this affliction. Between our band's gear, vintage gear we rented, and what was on hand at the studio, I was faced with an infinite amount of tone possibilities, something I got endlessly caught up in. Listening to the album now, I'm definitely happy with how the guitar is represented, although I think in the big picture of each song it is almost distracting.

For this song I played a Rickenbacker through a 1960's Vox amp, as well as a 1950's Panoramic semi-hollow body for the finger picking parts. FaderMaster just so happened to have three fully functioning Roland tape echo machines, which the sight of one alone would have most gear enthusiasts scrambling for a fresh set of undergarments, and we made good use of them on this track. A feature of this machine, which I can't explain how it occurs, is that they produce these wavering sustained notes that last forever. This is evident in the breakdown from 3:05 - 3:13, but even more so in the build up at the end of the song. My guitar part from 3:54 - 4:09 was recorded through the tape echo to give it a "sonar blip" type sound, and once I was done playing engineer Paul Boechler just had me hold the last note while he messed around with the tape echo. It produced this awesome sweeping sound that really helped fill out the build up, although I was standing there doing literally nothing. I was eventually overcome with so much guilt for standing by uselessly that I randomly started to tap some notes very high up on the neck, which you can hear at 4:27. They are very subtle, but I was really happy with what they added to that part.

Last but not least there is the outro itself, which is one of my favorite parts to play. There were a couple neat features here, one of which was the patch chord falling in and out of my guitar. I was playing so hard for the last part that I managed to shake the chord loose, so if you listen really closely the one guitar line will cut it and out, as well as producing random noise. It's not very prominent, but definitely adds a unique element.

The other interesting production feat in this song is the doubling of Tristan's snare roll at 5:12. With all Cairo songs, Tristan's drumming is the core foundation, and what really brings them to life. The snare roll in the outro provides such a strong sense of urgency, without it I don't think there would be the same effect at all. To really emphasize the importance of it, Tristan did a second take with a different snare to pronounce the beat. It added a nice dynamic change which makes for a great contrast when the quiet guitars come in at the very end.