Singled Out: Oh No Oh My?

"Again Again" started out as a demo I made in 2007. The verse had twice as many words than what would seem natural (which gave it a talk-singing vibe), the chorus was entirely different, and the song ended in dueling keyboard solos that I thought was killer but the rest of the band -- not so much. We jammed it and worked on it for a while but were eventually frustrated by the lack of direction and disputes about the end. The song was put out of mind until 2009.

While I was working on new songs for 'People Problems,' I decided to approach "Again Again" a little differently. I recorded another demo with just my vocals and an acoustic guitar, and then added a super fuzzed out lead guitar. The quality wasn't very good but it was just the inspiration the song needed, so when we all worked on it together everything gelled and the arrangement fell right into place.

I know it sounds backwards but I like to write the lyrics after the song is arranged and the melody written. In practices, I will mumble my way through a song with unfinished lyrics until I start coming up with certain phrases I like. When I record on our demos I'll make up words to fit the melody I'm coming up with. It usually is pretty terrible but every so often I'll listen back to the demos and hear a line or two I really like, and sometimes it's better than what I've been working on for days! After recording scratch vocals for "Again Again" Daniel asked me if I sang "reaches fingers down my throat" in the chorus - I said "yeah probably," and he replied "that line is awesome! Keep it!" Not only did I keep it, it helped to shape the rest of the lyrics.