Stories Behind the Songs: “Freak”
The gospel choir section at the end of “Freak” was written first, in February 2005, and the verse sections followed in April. The “choir” consists of sixteen total voices; John recorded four different harmonies for the men’s section which I then doubled, and Katie recorded four women’s harmonies which Pen doubled. Katie called it “The U.U. Tabernacle Choir” (U.U. being short for Unitarian Universalist, if you didn’t know). That part of the song expresses something of what I personally felt when I found my own “shelter from the storm”.