Preparation for the Insanity: “The First Bite”
As of publishing this blog, Insanity Reigns has been released on our Bandcamp and Soundcloud pages. Words can’t describe the relief and excitement we collectively feel, now that our entire EP is available for the masses.Â
Today’s blog came from something I saw Mike Shinoda from Linkin Park do last year to coincide with the release of Living Things on Twitter. Mike talked about how nowadays, the intensity and “event” of a CD release are no longer present due to CDs leaking 2 weeks premature to their release and/or from free downloads all over the internet. What Mike called for was a “worldwide listening party” for Living Things, where Mike started listening to LT at a specific time and he’d tweet as he went along (for example, everyone would be listening to “Burn It Down” at the time) and he’d tweet about the song playing at that moment so everyone could follow along. So for purposes of this blog, I’m asking you (if you have downloaded Insanity by now) to start listening to Insanity Reigns as I go through a detailed journey on the origins and significance of the songs while we listen together.
The Definition of Insanity: The Definition of Insanity intro was (ironically) one of the final pieces added to the EP. Sam had the final idea of incorporating an iconic dialogue cut scene from Far Cry 3 that talks about “the definition of insanity”. By then, we had already decided to name the EP Insanity, but we didn’t know that IR would open the EP or that we’d have a special intro to go with it. Jeff chopped up the dialogue to give it a twisted ambience, sort of like the intro to Slipknot’s debut album. I then took Jeff’s intro and added layers of synth from my Korg Kaossilator.Â
Insanity Reigns: Insanity Reigns’ origin came from an initial set of lyrics written by a friend of Cory’s. There was no pre-existing melody, flow, music, or anything. Just lyrics. Tapping into our love of death metal, I phrased the original lyrics in sort of a chanting, Corpsegrinder-esque flow and wrote the drum part underneath the vocal pattern. Following the idea I presented to the band, Jeff wrote a riff that went with the beat and the unison part came together almost seamlessly. The unison is actually my favorite part of the entire song. This is one of two songs on the EP where Sam performed all the vocals.
Victory: Victory was written following the first Thanksgiving Throwdown in November 2010. Clary and I went to a meeting for the Next Big Thing Battle of the Bands we’d later in DC and the judges told us that we’d be judged mostly on originality. Seeing as we had only 2 songs to our name at the time, we met this new challenge with enthusiastic inspiration. Around that time I had reconfigured my drums to allow for more spacious playing, a configuration I still use today. Of course, when I fuck around with my drums, I’m going to jam out on them for a long time! I showed Clary and Jeff the “bum-bum, bumbum” idea I had, and the rest of the song came together instantaneously afterwards.
Liberator: Liberator was written by Jeff and presented to us the first practice we had after Patrick quit. Given our newfound freedom to explore different styles, we immediately dug Jeff’s new “thrash idea”. Of course, a huge issue with our songs beforehand would be that lyrics would come dead last. Like, a week or less before the gig. Luckily, Jeff had lyrics already written to his new idea, and the song came together instantly afterward. Both parts of the chorus (“pull the chain”/”drop the axe”) were originally done by Cory when he was in the band, but after he left we started to break it in two, solidifying the signature vocal duality of Jeff and Sam.
Retribution: One of the three songs we wrote before the DC gig in 2010, I had an idea for a set opener that was fast and set the mood for the kind of chaotic shows I wanted to perform. It didn’t take form as the kind of aggressive song it needed to be until Sam and Jeff started singing. It was also the first song Sam did all the vocals on. The final piece of creative juice that went into the song (and believe me, there’s not much you can do to a song creatively when it’s almost 3 years old) was the guitar solo. The original solo was a frantic shredding piece that reminded me of what the sensation of being swarmed by a bunch of fucking bees. When we were recording Jeff and I got the idea of using Joey’s electric massager on the guitar pickups. The new solo kinda has a Wes Borland-ish feel to it and Jeff mixes up the solo each show, sometimes even playing it behind his head!
Wormhole: Wormhole was written during the big snowstorm I got up in CT earlier this year. I couldn’t go out and play drums. Fuck, I couldn’t really do much of anything! Luckily, I had my trusty Kaossilator by my side, so I’d just stay up into the wee hours coming up with cool spacey sounds and recording them into Audacity (swaaaaaag). Wormhole came together initially as the intro music for 52TV, but it sounded cooler as like a prelude to Human Disease. Sam laid down some droney bass on top of it while I’d control the wah pedal with my hand.Â
Human Disease: In April of 2011, Sam had accidentally come up with intro melody on bass and we jammed along to it in the practice room. He hated playing it because it was so hard. I even had a hard time coming up with pocket-based groove to go with it, but the more we jammed it together, the better idea we had for the type of song we wanted to make it. Initially after jamming it, I came up with a set of lyrics with the words “human disease” in them. My lyrics didn’t make the final cut, but the inital concept was expanded upon by Jeff and after 6 months of jamming the song together, we had a finished product that was gig-ready!
Not My Forte: The last song that was written during the “pre-DC show spree”, I had been listening to a lot of White Pony by Deftones at the time, and the songs Change and Pink Maggit had these simple but dark and droney verses but would have those “big” build sections afterwards. As a rhythm guitarist, Clary wrote in the style of playing the same thing over and over again (not in a bad way), so the “slow riff” in the beginning had little variation and it took a while to come up with vocal melodies over it. The last half is one of my favorite parts in any song we’ve created to date. One of 3 songs of ours that technically doesn’t have a chorus.
The Definition of Insanity Outro: Around the 6:13 mark starts the “hidden” outro track. I started playing around with the “insanity” dialogue from Far Cry 3 some more and used more of what the guy actually is saying, that way it gives a resolution to the dialogue from the intro (tying it all in!). Another proud moment of my Kaossilator, mixed with droney improvised bass from Sam. The loop at the end was inspired by the intros, outros, and interludes DJ Lethal would do on Chocolate Starfish and the Hotdog Flavored Water. I wanted to have IR end in a spacey and ambient way, and I’m stoked this 4 minute outro made its way onto the final product.
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