For each month's Featured Release, we ask the principle songwriters for the band to provide commentary for each track on the new record. Here, fans are given some insight into the inspiration, creative developement, and recording process for all the songs on the record.
Song commentary for this album by Ryan Dunson, with help from Mike Kamerman.
1. The Goodnight Moon
This song is the introduction to our record. It is used to basically start off the mood of the disc and to get the listener ready for the stories/songs they are about to hear. We were able to experiment a lot with different vocal ideas on this one.
2. Poison Like Your Own
This song is one of the more upbeat songs on the record. The lyrics are pretty strange. They are about poisoning someone to death and then dreaming about that person killing you the same night. I think the song is interesting because if you read the lyrics you definately wouldn't think they are for that song. (if that makes any sense?)
3. Silhouettes (All Eyes Above)
This song is about after losing someone, the things that remind you of that person. It is pretty cool how this song came about because it almost didn't make the record. We had a chorus melody that we didn't like and everytime we tried to write a new one it would come out the same as the old one. One day, we got lucky and came up with the right melody. And now we like the song, whoo hoo!
4. Sign of Her Glory
Ryan dated a girl that in his own words, "liked to be miserable all the time", so this song is talking about how she liked to stay inside her dark house and use the computer all day. For the beginning of the song, we brought the microphone into the control room, and recorded ourselves talking and hitting bottles together. So all that is, is just Mike, Ryan, and Matt (our producer) talking and looping it a couple of times.
5. Liars and Battlelines
This song is about loving someone even though they have lied to you before. It is about looking over the fact that someone lies in the relationship. A relationship like that can only go on for so long, then its time to pack up and leave. The main guitar riff is a riff Mike wrote for his old band a couple of years ago, they didn't like it so they never used it.
6. Pop Destroyed the Scene
This song is just a fun song about being young and in love!
7. The Blue Roses
This one is about the summertime and losing that special person. We wrote this song the day before we left on our first tour with this lineup because we didn't have enough songs. We planned on it just being for that tour but we fixed it up and it made the record.
8. Life, Fall Fast Now
This song was a last minute song. We had about 2 days left in the studio and felt like 11 songs wasn't enough, so Mike wrote the structure of the song in about 20 minutes, we added electronic drums and then Ryan wrote the lyrics in the vocal booth. This song was a really fun song to record, we layered it like crazy!!!
9. Set the Sails, Red Beret
The CD wasn't rocking enough so we threw this song on so we wouldn't feel like dorks. It is about an old friend of Ryans. They had a falling out. The creapy beginning of the song is Mike and Ryan running around Matt's house late at night.
10. The Weekend
Ryan dated a girl in North Carolina for 3 years and she cheated on him with a "playa" and lied about it. So Ryan wrote this song about her. Our friend Blake R Milliron played piano on it. He rules. He also played the piano on "The Blue Roses"
11. Enjoy This Drive
I think this song is a lot different from the rest of the record. This song was originally meant to be the first song on the CD. The lyrics are about popping in the record and pretty much asking the listener to give it a chance. We tried to make it sound like it was written about a girl tho. We also threw in some lyrics from an old Rookie song in the bridge.
12. Having To Let Go
This one is an old song from the old Rookie record, totally redone. It is about a girl Ryan dated in Florida, they broke up, she is his scarlet red. Hopefully, people who like the old version will dig this one. We thought that it was a good song to end the record with. |
