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HeartSongs - 20170703

  • Published in Columns

Welcome to HeartSongs, our regularly scheduled (probably) look at songs and the people who write them. We spoke to Zach from North Carolina’s Snatch The Snail about ‘In Convenience’ from their new record, Not Another Snail Album.

“The inspiration behind the song started with the first verse. I was working at a movie theatre at the time I wrote it and would constantly drink Icees. My favourite flavour was blue, plus there's a photo of me with blue dye in my mouth and that image stuck with me. From there, we move onto the chorus. First thing that came to mind about the Icees was that "It's a guilty pleasure" so I went with that. And after saying "It's hard to resist" I immediately considered it a "That's what she said" joke. I do stand-up comedy sometimes and like to slip jokes into songs, so I went with it. Also, I was dating a girl at the time who has a "That's what she said" bumper sticker, so it was a done deal.

The second verse was more random. I like the phrase "Nevertheless" but wanted to switch it up and write "Never ever the less". "Put it to the test" made it feel more sciencey, which I dig. "Lest we forget" I got from an old episode of Spongebob. "It's just a jest" was just true about the joke concept. And "difficult to digest" just rhymed and sounded good.

Recording was pretty straight forward. I did it all myself with my home equipment. The guitar parts for the verse and chorus were taken from two different songs that I never used. This is the only album where each song was done first with an acoustic guitar and a metronome, and then drums, bass, electric guitar and vocals were done later. There's also a violin track from the violin setting on a keyboard. It always seemed cheesy to me, but I feel like it added a lot to this album without it being too obvious.

To add to that, the title is ‘In Convenience’ because Icee's are most commonly found at convenience stores, plus I was watching a lot of Jay and Silent Bob at the time. Spacing it out as two words added to the punny nature of the song and had slight sexual undertones.”

 

LYRICS:

My tongue and my teeth and my lips are blue

I've got brain freeze

From all of the Icees I drink on the reg

If I'm feeling crazy

I'll switch it up to red

 

It's a guilty pleasure and it's hard to resist

That's what she said

 

Never ever the less

Put it to the test

Lest we forget

That it's just a jest

 

But it's getting difficult to digest

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HeartSongs - 20170626

  • Published in Columns

 

Welcome to HeartSongs, our regularly scheduled (probably) look at songs and the people who write them. We spoke to Jack from Gorey band, 5 Dollar Shakes, about their recent single ‘House In Spain’ and the creative way they are promoting it.

“‘Transitions’ started out as the intro to ‘House In Spain’. It has no lyrics. It was heavier and had a Foo Fighters type of sound but we went in an indie direction with the drone in the background creating the ambience. You’ll see how it fits in the short film. We knew going in to it that we would have a 15 minute video for the whole EP. We had Richard (X. Deering) who is a talented filmmaker as well as being our bassist, so we made the intro into a standalone track.

We’re constantly changing; every EP is very different to the last. We recorded the tracks live to capture our live sound. It’s something we’ve struggled with; trying to get that energy while recording drums or guitars alone. We tracked it all together and did the vocals after.

Like a lot of our songs we worked on the music then I took it away and started writing. It came to me one day when I was out walking in the Irish sunshine. My folks were heading off to Spain and I was thinking that in years to come I would like to retire early from whatever I’m doing, up sticks, and buy a house in Spain, and live out my days in the sunshine with the love of my life.

There are doubts creeping in to the lyrics. I love that line at the end “I'm so sick of writing songs, That remind me of how it was when we were together”. As we were exiting the breakdown there’s an extra bar and it came out unintentionally.

We’ve released the “single” version of ‘House In Spain’ that is a standalone. Then the whole 17 minute Transitions video followed. Fair play to Richard and all the people in Carlow Institute of Technology who have worked very hard over the last number of weeks on it.

So many bands are releasing high quality videos and pumping great money into them and they’re not getting the attention they deserve. Maybe we will fall flat on our faces with this but we’d rather try something different than just release another music video. So we’ve done this short film with a concept. Who knows? Hopefully people will watch it.”

 

‘House In Spain’ Lyrics

You and I got by,

We rode our bikes and said goodbye,

Bought a house in Spain,

Is it too late?

Where do we go from here?

what if this feeling disappears?

What if I'm wrong for you?

Check your suitcase in,

Slip on your dancing shoes,

 

What you see is what you get,

And what you see is all you get,

No time to pick and choose,

Maybe when you find a place,

You'll start again, To rebuild,

Without a trace of the ones you've pawned and sold,

 

You've packed up,

Moving out, with the old,

As for the house in Spain,

It's much too late ,

There's too much "friendzone",

there's too much money spent ,

There's no solution,

Keeping word for word all the things you've said,

 

What you see is what you get,

And what you see is all you get,

No time to pick and choose,

Maybe when you find a place,

You'll start again, To rebuild,

Without a trace of the ones you've pawned and sold,

 

What you see is what you get,

And what you see is all you get,

No time to pick and choose,

Maybe when you find a place,

You'll start again, To rebuild,

Without a trace of the ones you've pawned and sold,

And I'm so sick of writing songs,

 

That remind me of how it was when we were together.

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