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Singled Out: Zak Smith's Tombs Don't Roll Back

07/16/2013
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Today Zak Smith tells us about his brand new single "Tombs Don't Roll Back" which comes from his forthcoming new studio album "Precambrian Age". Zak's style has drawn comparisons to a young Bruce Springsteen. Here is the story:

I remember writing the hook while driving up to Boston. I had been working on getting the chorus right for a while and something in it just wasn't sitting right. I had changed the lyrics and melody to that section a lot, for a long time the chorus started with the line "My heart is filled with ice". When I finally came up with the chorus I had just been listening to that song "Some nights" by the band fun. and that inspired the "Tonight tonight tonight" part in some way. It was a difficult hook to write because the length of the measures in the chorus is a little strange, it was hard to fit in all the melody I wanted and to make it sound big in strong without the words and music getting jumbled.

The verses have a groove similar to a lot of the band Little Feat's music. It's kind of a New Orleans shuffle kind of thing. If you listen to their song Dixie Chicken you'll hear there's kind of a similar rhythm. I wrote the verse lyrics years ago but left the song unfinished until last year.

The song is about saying to a girl, I want more in life than just you. It's a harsh kind of a thing. You can say things in songs that you can't usually in real life. The line "tombs don't roll back" means I'm either saved or I'm buried, depending on how you look at it. It's a reference from the bible, Jesus rolling away the stone from his tomb and coming out. So you can see it like I'm saying, "Once you come out of your tomb, the stone won't roll back and shut you up in it again", or, conversely, "No stone was ever rolled away, you can't escape your tomb". So wanting fame, glory, success is either an escape or a life sentence. Depending on what day and hour it is I'll have a different answer.

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

Zak Smith CDs, DVDs and MP3s

Zak Smith T-shirts and Posters

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