From the album The Lines of History
Lyrics
Caste, imperfect place, a hardship bourne of wealth
The right to show your love for another
Faking thoughts to fit a mold, hoping that
We’ll all see the day
Of letting go, reflection a fragment
Waking thoughts betray your own knowing, that
We’d all feel the same
Fast to write away what we all forgive ourselves
Past, the common face, that we all forget ourselves
Force-fed denial of what we all once shared
Forced into denying what we all once shared
Caste, imperfect place, a hardship bourne of wealth
Waking thoughts betray your own knowing, that
We’d all feel the same
Fast to write away what we all forgive ourselves
Past, the common face, that we all forget ourselves
Notes
Andy (click to show)
Andy (click to hide)
All jokes aside, the lyrical content of this song is something I feel very strongly about and I’m both happy and proud that Jim decided to dedicate a song on this album to the topic. The Olbermann sound clip is powerful and fitting and it almost feels like that specific sample was meant to be placed within this song.
Axel (click to show)
Axel (click to hide)
When we came up for the idea for writing these little notes, I was worried that they’d come off as self-agrandizing and a bit arrogant. To combat that, I promised myself that I’d be self-critical as well, and call ourselves out when I thought we did something poorly. Well, this is me holding up to that promise.
I definitely think this is the weakest song on the album. There’s some good moments, but as a whole I think it could stand to be more cohesive, to flow a little better. The verse and chorus riffs, in particular, I think could be stronger.
I’m not sure how other bands write, but our writing process is very long. Sometimes what seems like a good idea at the beginning of the process can age poorly. I think that’s the case with this song, at least for me. We were all very excited about it when we first wrote and recorded it, but as time’s passed it’s gotten a little tepid to me.
That being said, I do think there’s some strong moments. The heavy middle section is awesome, the Olbermann sample is perfect, and the subject matter is very dear to all of our hearts. If we had left this one in the oven a little longer, I think we’d have a better product.
Rug (click to show)
Rug (click to hide)
I’d had a couple of the riffs laying around for a few years, we’d actually worked on an early form of what become The Common Face when we were writing for our album 7 Billion (which we were recording when we went on hiatus. It’s a pretty thrashy album, so it doesn’t fit with what we’re doing now, but it WILL get completed, I promise), but it died and didn’t really go anywhere. I was in the middle of writing a very “note-y, noodley” lead line to go over the main riff, but ended up scrapping it because I thought (correctly) everyone else would hate it. So I wrote a slower, more melodic melody to sit over top that they all seemed to like, and we used a part of that melody to write the rest of the song. One analogy could be finding a thread, and pulling at it long enough to knit a sweater. There are two chord shapes that end that melody over the main riff – once the song cuts into the sample break, Axel and I just split up the chords and arpeggiate them on a continuous loop, leaving a nice bed for the song to transition into a shift in tonality, while still retaining elements of the original key. That definitely wasn’t an intentional plan, but looking back on it, that’s what happened…so don’t be afraid to reuse riffs and melodic ideas!
