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Singled Out: The Gallery

02/26/2013
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Today The Gallery frontman Brendan Cooney tells us about the song "Young & Restless" from their brand new album "Restless," which was released today. Here is the story:

The song is about humanity, and how everyone goes through hard times � whether it's loss of loved ones through war, or heartbreak in general� but it's the human spirit to keep on keepin' on. As for the chorus, it is about how we need to be there for each other � we are stronger together than we are individually.

We started this song over two years ago, so I honestly couldn't tell you when or where the original idea spawned from. The original title was 'The Thing About Love,' because the opening verse of the song was the only part we had finished ("The thing about love and the thing about peace; the thing about hope and the thing about me�"). It took me a long time to figure out what part of the song - pre-chorus, chorus, verse, etc. - that should be.

We wanted to finish the song for a long time � even for the 'Come Alive' EP � but we just couldn't get it done in time. Nothing we tried for the rest of the song felt as strong as that first verse. When it came time to write this record, we were just trying and trying to finish it, but it wasn't coming easily. Usually that's a sign not to force it.

We had the original 10 songs for the album, and thought the record was done. Our manager, Sara, however, loved the song and wanted us to give it one last try. We'd showed it to our producer, Warren, who loved it as well. We ended up going back into the studio to record it, almost as a bonus after the rest of the album was completed.

We didn't feel the original chorus melody we came up with was strong enough to be the chorus, but we still liked that melody and the idea behind the lyric ("It's been a long year for the broken hearted�"). We ended up writing a new chorus, and making the old chorus the bridge � we kept the lyrics but changed a few of the chords to make it feel more like a bridge.

Once the new melody was written for the chorus, it was up to us to sit there and play the chorus melody over and over, and sing over and over, to see what words sounded good and fit the meaning of the song. I finally came up with "We are the young and restless, together no one can stand against us, we are the young and restless, we are one" after trial and error, and just listening to it hundreds of times. We'd already had the idea to do gang vocals for the chorus, even before the lyrics were written, so that helped write the "we are" part of the lyric. We had also already decided to name the album Restless, so we thought that lyric would be a good fit.

We knew the song would be going in a poppy direction for us � even going into it � but we thought we would stretch ourselves a little, while staying true to the sound of the rest of the album. We wanted to keep a balance of that. Overall lyrically it's personally one of my favorites, and I like how it came out. I am glad we got the push to finish it, and I'm happy we waited this long and didn't force it.

Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen for yourself and learn more about the album right here!

The Gallery CDs, DVDs and MP3s

The Gallery T-shirts and Posters

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