Entry 5: Rising Action
So the two characters in this grand tale have been introduced: the unnamed protagonist and the antagonistic "party" that we have been so graciously welcomed to. From this point on, it's time for things to happen!
4. Independence Day
This was the first song we have actually released from this album. A pretty, National-like jam that begins to describe the protagonist's discomfort with the situation he's in:
Just as the lyrics of the song describe, the protagonist is beginning to feel as if he's losing his humanity, and he starts scrambling to cherish the beauty in life amongst the bleak realities of his existence. "Pictures of glass are like paintings of old," muses the hero, demonstrating his pessimistic outlook on his life, that the only form of true beauty in life is something as simple and bland as a picture of glass.
The breakdown begins later on, as the protagonist begins to realize that he has to do something about it, and he begins to make it more than personal. "Pledge allegiance to the ones that love us, not the ones like you," says he, as he metaphorically declares his secession from the "party".
The writing and recording of this song was fairly standard for us. I came up with a unique and interesting chord progression and just slowly started building off of that. The true challenges arose once the skeleton of the song was already established. We wanted more from the song, so we developed an interesting lead guitar part continuously plays triplets to contrast the standard strumming of the chords. That, along with a strong piano accompaniment by Schuyler, and suddenly the song felt much fuller and, frankly, much better.
5. Diluted
Given both Schuyler and I come from more rock-oriented backgrounds, we had to have at least one song that has a rock-ish feel that you could jam to! Diluted opens with a standard indie rock guitar riff written by me, but the chords are still rather discordant and gives off an uneasy feel which is translated through the lyrics.
Our protagonist is going on with his life, secretly waiting for his opportunity to take action against his societal captives. However, he begins to grow paranoid that people are onto him, which introduces the basis for this song. The protagonist does not wish to let the paranoia get to him and steer him off of his course, but he also does not wish to be discovered, so he begins to look at everyone around him in a different light as if they were a spy. This leads to the protagonist describing himself as "diluted" in terms of his personality and humanity.
The song focuses on a catchy, up-tempo ranting section that is followed by some harmonized sustained vocals that make for a rather nice "tap your feet" type of rock song for the earlier sections of the album. To go along with the theme of the last few songs, however, the ending begins to slowly fades in and out to become more and more uneasy sounding which blends seamlessly into the next track.
6. Your Existence is in Bad Taste
Here's where things start to take a turn. The protagonist's fears were entirely correct, and the police are coming for him. It's time to run.
The creation of this song has a bit of an interesting history. Over the past year I've developed a bit of a mastery with Ableton Live and subsequently the creation of electronic music. I was experimenting one day when I crafted something I found to be really cool and dark and I wanted to use it.
The first draft of this song was considerably different from what is now being used on the album. I initially wrote a tale from the perspective of another character from beyond-the-grave, so to speak. This character was describing a tragic tale where him and his family were also against the government. They were found out, and the police murdered him and his family. This character then delivers a warning to the protagonist, saying that he needs to give up and he is wasting his time.
Quite dark, eh? Well, it was frankly too dark for us, and we re-wrote the lyrics to instead just be about the protagonist being discovered and subsequently trying to escape. This is conveyed over the electronic track made by me that takes on a very industrial-rock type of feel. The drum beat is heavy and booming, the synths are loud and frightening and sound almost metallic. It's a rather dramatic track that introduces the primary action of the album.
Keep an eye out for our next entry on Tuesday that will continue chronicling the story of our album and the songs that convey that story!
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