(antiMusic) Welcome to Singled Out! where we ask artists to tell us the inside story of their latest single. Next week you'll be able to hear heavy rockers Nonpoint in a whole new light when they release their new acoustic EP "Cut The Chord," featuring unplugged versions of some of their biggest hits. Frontman Elias Soriano was kind of enough to take a break from the recording of their new album to tell us the behind the scenes story for their hit "Your Signs," which is one of the tracks on the new EP. Here is Elias with the story and it's a good one!Though early in our career, the song "Your Signs" was pretty much a venting outcry to the big scary machine that we like to call THE MAJOR RECORD LABEL that the direction they wanted us to go in was not what we wanted as a band.
We had just gotten off Ozzfest and THE LABEL was eager to get new music in the hands of our newfound fans. With the success that bands in the pop rock genre were having at the time on our label (Blink 182, New Found Glory, etc.), there was a fair amount of pressure from the label to hash out another record, containing what they always like to refer as a massive brain dead radio hit. Being that it took us nearly two years of our lives to fine tune the songs on our first full length "Statement," it seemed next to impossible for us to try to do it in the 3 months the label was giving us to deliver.
But, with a lot of convincing from our managers at the time, mounted with an offer from the label to purchase a $15,000 Protools system including the computer and the outboard gear to write on the road while finishing our tour cycle on "Statement" (which at the time was something only bands of gold and platinum status did). So we said yes. MISTAAAAAKE!!
The more we wrote, the more we were reminded, Write a hit.. Write a hit.. Write a hit.. That song's cool, but it's not a hit. I like the chorus, but it's not a hit. The more we forced it the more upset and annoyed we got. Writing a rock record on a bus is no easy task. Daily distractions. Bus noise bleeding into tracks. Having to record around the late night tour schedule. Members being half into the writing process. Comments from outside sources swaying our intentions and natural influences. We felt like we were under a microscope. Right when we felt like we were on to something, management or the label wanted something else. The clock was ticking and we didn't know what direction we were going. What are we doing here? What the hell do they want and expect from us.
Soooo.. We get home from the tour.. We've got 8 songs.. We immediately get into the practice spot and start to play what we got for our managers. Toward the end of the tour I came up with the chorus lyric "your signs are pointing to nowhere" and really hadn't put it to anything because it came to me towards the end of the writing process during the peak of our frustration with everything. Then it happened. The guys started jamming a song they were just improvising, and I remembered I had that lyric and just started singing it. Holy Shit. Everything stopped. We immediately got excited and i remember us pretty much finishing it that day.
The following day we called in our manager at the time and played him the song.. As soon as I sang, "Your Signs!! are pointed to no where.." He stood up, raised his hands like a referee after a successful field goal kick. And for one of the few times during that draining, frustrating process I smiled on the inside. Not because I was happy that I pleased the manager and the Label. But because it took a song about them pressuring, rushing, and trying to change us into a band we didn't want to be for us to write a song they liked enough to hurry the record out.
Granted that now, I look back with pride and a sense of accomplishment when I think about that record and song, there's still a little piece of me cracking up on the inside saying, "Hey genius, the songs about you!"
Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen for yourself and learn more about the EP - right here!
