Norma Jean [2 of 4]
PART 2 (the next 2,142 words…):
…and I don’t really even know what it means, or I’m not trying to be like some weird artist dude. I don’t know, but that’s just what usually comes out. A lot of stuff doesn’t necessarily have meaning, but a lot of my newer stuff I’m trying to tie more of a spiritual meaning into it. I’m actually currently working on the artwork for our record. Everything in it has meaning – every single last thing that I use has meaning. I’ve done individual collages for each song. I’ll take the lyrics and just read ‘em when I’m at home and kind of whatever mental picture I have from whatever these lyrics make me think of, I’ll kind of portray that through imagery. It’s all coming together really, really well. I’m pretty sure we’re using it. It’s not 100% yet, but that’s going really well and I’m excited because everything has meaning. The lyrics to this record have so much meaning to all of us, because…like, me. It’s mostly been Cory, Scottie and I working on the lyrics and the song titles. It’s a lot more of a group effort. I’ve actually written a lot of lyrics and Scottie and Cory… It’s just been a collective thing. Now that I’m actually getting to hear some of the stuff come to life, through the songs, now that we’ve recorded stuff I’m hearing the words that I wrote and it’s much more emotional. I don’t know. It’s definitely a good feeling to have.
What are some of the interesting lyrical themes that we’re going to find on this new album?
A lot, like… I’d say most of the songs are inspired by stuff that has happened in Cory’s life, I guess. He’s just gone through a lot of empty times in his life and I would say that’s what most of the stuff is drawn from. Not necessarily about a certain situation or scenario, but things that he would learn from that and whether it just be, like, arguments or… I don’t know. There’s some really deep personal stuff, but in the midst of all that there’s a lot of lyrics about hope and finding hope in desperation. A lot of it is very hopeful, but not really blatantly straight-forward about God, but a lot of it is. I mean, if you read it, you’d definitely know what we were talking about. But I don’t know. There’s a lot of stuff about addictions and deception. In a way it’s kind of like a themed album, like a concept album, and a lot of it does have to do with deception and also hope. I don’t know if I would call it a concept album, but there is a common theme throughout, I think.
Do you know what the title’s going to be?
Yeah, it’s gonna be called, Oh God, the aftermath.
What’s your initial feeling about that title as far as the meaning behind it or?
I really like it, because it can be… It’s kind of an open-ended thing. It can be taken several different ways. It was inspired by a friend of ours who’s from Pensacola and moved up to Atlanta a couple years ago. But Jake, our bass player, is good friends with him. I guess we’re all pretty good friends with him, actually, but he had wanted to name a band that years ago. And we were like, ‘Dude, that’s cool. We should use it for our record title.’ And he was like, “Yeah, you should.” So, we’ve had that name probably for about a year. As far as my personal meaning behind it, and we could all have different ones. I don’t know, but that’s, like I said, another one of the reasons why I really like it, because it’s kind of an open-ended thing. But I think it has, like, a positive thing, like the aftermath of salvation, the aftermath of grace or repentance. So, it’s like… To me, it’s like speaking of salvation. It’s like a pleasant, glorious aftermath, you know, of our past life, kind of thing. Not past lives, as far as reincarnation, but like our sinful life before Christ. That’s the way I’m looking at it and that’s a lot of like, the artwork and stuff like that is inspired with that direction. That’s my take on it.
When you look at the musical landscape around you, what do you perceive people are "hungry for," musically speaking?
I definitely think kids are kind of getting tired of just the same old same old breakdown after breakdown. I don’t know. I’m hoping that our record is well received, and I think it will be. Not so that we can big or anything like that at all, but I just think it will be, like… It’s something new. I guess every band wants to say that they’re different or whatever, but I just really feel like there’s nothing else going on – at least at this moment – that’s like this. I mean, it’s not just another hardcore band recording. Even the way that we’re going about the recording process and vocally. I don’t know. To me, it’s a lot different than what’s going on right now. So, hopefully that’ll work for our favor. People could hate it. I don’t know. I think it’s a step up from our last record. I think people will be into it, for sure.
NEXT PAGE
All Pages | 1 | 2 | 3
Return to Internet Exclusives
Comments
