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 David Schroeder.
1. In Loving Memory Of
Everyone has always wanted to know who would show face at their own funeral. This was my chance to maybe connect with people on a personal level. The song actually was writen in our van that broke down in Wyoming. We actually didn't even show Matt Squire the song, because all it was, was a riff with nothing else.
2. Antidote For Irony
Wow... this song was the first new song we wrote for the new record. Well, there is no antidote for irony, so I wanted lyrically to explain a situation that really captures irony, and I figured getting a person you care about into shit they shouldn't be in, and then that being the thing that drives them away, was as close as I could come.
3. Anxiety Is Setting In
This song was about an experience my girlfriend and I had with 'shrooms. I fell on the ground outside into some leaves and I wondered... what if leaves could grow hands and pull on your skin? This song was mostly written when we went into the studio, but freakin' Matt... he just helped us bring it together and he made it wail. Kind of. *Laughs* Just kidding. The 'shroom expeirence kinda got me thinking about how our human expierences are different, but essentially the same. So it's kind of a trick, or a set-up, from something bigger... hence the "We're on our own" lyric.
4. Goodbye
"Goodbye" is a song about somebody I feel pretty bitter about.
5. In Essence, We Are Falling
It's about knowing there's about to be a separation between you and another person. I tried to keep it somewhat vague so that it wasn't specific as to what was being split apart. It's mainly just about being hurt, getting over it, and getting out.
6. You Asked "Where Are We Now?"
It's called "You Asked 'Where Are We Now?'" because it's a marking stone about how the album changes attitudes or themes... instead of being in these situations and being mad and pointing the finger, it's about realizing you're at blame, too, and doing the whole self-reflective process. So I just describe myself going through that change, and talking about what I want to come from the realizations. Like goods things... like having someone there all the time.
7. Over Exposed Photo
It's about this flyer I saw that had been tainted with saying some mean things about me, and realizing some of it's true, but a lot of it's not. I'm just letting people know that I've gone through change, this band has gone through change, and you can take us for who we are.
8. The Burden
"The Burden"is a really peronal song to me; it's inspired by someone ill in my family. Originally had the song lyrically written to some different music, but when we got in the studio, we changed a lot of the music it was originally written to, and put it to a new thing we were working on. It came out perfect.
9. Act Like You're Listening, Till It's Your Turn To Talk
This song was based off a drum roll Justin had come up with to a guitar riff I had thought of one night. It's a song we basically wrote in the studio... it's cool. I don't know what else to say about it--it's lyrically inspired by the sensation of suprise and gratitude.
10. Talking in Circles
This song is inspired by being annoyed by these reoccuring forces trying to distract us from our goal as a band. We wanna stay honest and fresh, and we feel like we're just talking in circles to these people who are not so concerned for what we want, or getting shit right about who we are as a band.
11. A Beautiful Plan
It's the closing track... it's musically the heaviest song on the album. We're just blatantly callin' people out on the track. |
