Singled Out: The Frst's Cycles

06-16-2019

Nashville rockers The Frst recently released a new single called "Cycles" and to celebrate we asked group mastermind Mikei Gray to tell us about the song. Here is the story:

For years, I have said that fashion, culture, and music, all essentially move in a cycle of somewhere between 20-30 years in terms of what we are culturally being influenced by and what is deemed "fresh" vs "outdated". For example, in music, when the screamo scene grew in the early 2000s it felt reminiscent of the 80s to me (i.e.: hairspray, tight fitting clothes, higher range vocals, guitar technique) and of course this decade we see a lot of inspiration coming from the 90s rock renaissance...which personally I think is long overdue! However, we already can see things moving again towards an early 00s hip hop - rock post-modern feel in sound and style...hence, the lyrical concept for Cycles.

Musically, it wasn't until I wrote the chorus/intro guitar riff that the rest of the song unfolded. The verse was kind of a spaced out version of the main riff to let the drums carry the band, instead of the guitar.

In regards to the track, I was basically picturing a biker punk band in the desert covering "Bullet The Blue Sky" by U2...maybe on psychedelics (or maybe not!)."

Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen for yourself right here!