Bryan Simpson, the mastermind behind The Whistles & The Bells, offers some insight and background into Modern Plagues: “I wanted to make a record that sounded like some great cosmic dinner party. Not a gross, homogenized one where people bludgeon their intellect with one-sided conversation…but more of an, ‘if you could invite four people from history over for dinner who would it be?’ kind of shindig. Ya know where you say Abe Lincoln, John Lennon, Joan of Arc maybe Truman Capote/Mark Twain or some other strange collection of human heavyweights.”