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 Alex Tiberia.
1. Nice Shoes, Hollywood
I wrote this one on tour last summer, I had the chorus melody in my head and decided to just write exactly what I was missing at the time. I kept it clean, but the song is basically about drinking and sex with my ex-girlfriend on a drunken summer night. What a pretty song though. I love singing it and thinking about those kinds of nights.
2. Time, Traffic, and Weather
Everyone gets dumped, and this song came about when I was at the very end of a 2 year relationship. I was still not fully accepting the break up and wondering how things were going to be if she never came back. I always wanted to record a song with my sister Cristina because of her amazing talent. I'm grateful for her beautiful vocals in this song, they worked so well. The verses are really about how much I had put into the relationship and how much she just didn't care. I was trying my best not to care about anything anymore, and forget the whole relationship ever happened. Oh yeah, she didn't come back.
3. Best Unspoken
The first song we wrote under the name Sleepaway. I had been giving my love life a lot of thought and was sick of the fighting, sick of the mistakes and sick of goodbyes. I knew I was in love at the time and knew I'd have to start making some changes and learn from the mistakes my ex and I were making. The "I'll be waiting" hook in the chorus really best describes the song, explaining that we had gone through so much but I would have done anything for that girl. This was a song I was nervous about recording because I was so happy with the demo version that I didn�t think I�d be happy with a totally new version. However, the vocals came out exactly how I wanted them, and the guitar tones are beautiful.
4. From My Bed To Yours
Another song from another stage in my breakup. The girl I was dating was able to move on so easy, but I had nowhere to go. I remembered times on tour when a phone call was all we would have but it still meant so much. Hence the chorus lines "hearts crawl through phone calls..". However, she just cant handle that life, and when she regrets dumping the boy that loved her, she'll realize I'm already gone. We had a lot of different ideas for this song in the studio, its kind of a simple song and we kept it simple, but the bridge is my favorite part. Its not often that I get to just sing and play alone and then rock back into a chorus.
5. Who Needs The Radio When You've Got Me?
Kind of a nostalgic summer song for me. I wrote this while I had the worries of juggling the life of a musician with the relationship you have at home. "..you're pulling me away from everything I know�". Despite my devotion to music I was still willing to devote my life to the love of a girl who would change her mind like crazy "you're running around and you're running away". Jeff from This Day & Age does great vocals on this track.
6. What Are You Gonna Say When I Call You?
Giving up is a really hard thing to do. I remember driving by my ex's house, because she lives so close to many of my band members, and having it feel as if I'd never be in that house again, like she had moved away and that was that. I still had a lot of old photos of us around the house, that I should have thrown away. When we started talking again after the breakup I had really high hopes, that point of the song is heard when the chorus first kicks in. "She hears every word before I ever say..". I had basically assumed we were getting back together and things would be great, that regardless of the breakup I was getting her back, and getting back to where I wanted to be. "Pictures and problems developed today" basically implying that every time those high hopes came I'd find that she still found reasons to be unhappy. Fuck that shit.
7. Understand, We Couldn't Have
I went away to college months before starting sleepaway, my gf at the time left me for dorming 40 minutes away. I was a pretty fragile kid and inexperienced with relationships at the time. The situation devastated me and after forming the band I had looked back on that whole event and wrote this song. "I know I left, you couldn't guide me through or understand.." This of course being the most defining lyrics, she couldn't be there for me at a time I needed her the most, my first time ever living away from home. When this song was recorded, I was happy to change a few things from the demo version. I had made the chorus just a little more powerful to express my emotion at this point.
8. If I Try
Towards the end of my first serious relationship, I could see it all falling apart before it even happened. I figured she'd leave me for all the touring and all the time put towards the band, and all the drinking rather than going to school and being home with her. "You�ve got your reasons� 'cause I'm away all the time..".
9. Something Of A Saturday
I wrote this song when I was 17 years old and the lyrics have barely changed since. The summer before my senior year of highschool, I had devoted so much time to drinking and partying with my friends, that I hadn't realized how alone I'd been. Every immature attempt at relationships fell through and replaced all of those failures with alcohol and drugs. "I'll fall asleep and wonder why I never kissed your lips goodnight" It really reminds me of that autumn returning to school and how I didn't understand why I couldn't get a girl to just be with me. This is still one of my favorite songs to sing, it brings back so many memories of that summer/fall.
10. Sorry I Never Bought You a Car or Took You to Vegas
Kind of the finale to the record. My acceptance to the end of 2 years of love turned to heartache. I was sick of the 3 am phone calls, the arguments, and of course the stupid reasons for me being dumped. I had never thought friendship could come out of it and it still hasn't. I remember being so careful of what to say to her, so that maybe she would come back but she was always just giving up on me. It felt good to end the song with "I�m giving up on our last try". For once I wanted to be the one who said fuck it. Recording this song was a blast, the gang vocals and the bridge are my favorite part of this whole record. It was something we had never gotten to do before and I�m glad this song came out as powerful as it did, even with the pretty guitar pickings. |
