Musical Notes: Give Me Something Real

Musical Notes posts describe the structure, production ideas, and influences for Under the Rose songs. We thought it'd be fun to publish the ideas behind the finished products to see if our intentions for the songs matched other peoples' perceptions of the songs.


You can listen to this song here.

Song Structure

"Give Me Something Real" is a pop song pretending to be a metal song. Our idea was to create a lot of contrasts: minor keys with major keys, screaming with smooth vocal harmonies, plodding tempo with upbeat tempo. The dark verses bleed directly into the more joyous chorus.

In my mind, the most interesting section of the song begins after the second chorus. The joyful major sound continues through the guitar solo. Then, thick, layered vocal harmonies appear in the final chorus, giving the song a feeling of resolution. Hopefully, this sense of resolution makes the frantic outro seem all the more shocking. 

This structure is intended to mirror the song’s lyrics: the verses contain a dark, brooding enumeration of personal sin, but the chorus evolves into a pleading, hopeful recognition of God’s salvation.

Recording

Jason and I recorded a slightly slower version of this song a few months before recording the finished version. When we recorded “A Spirit of Burning,” we realized that the original version of “Give Me” could not measure up in terms of energy. Jason retracked the drums at a quicker tempo and with more gusto, and I set about rerecording my parts.

I added many new vocal parts to the final version of “Give Me,” including more harmonies, the spoken words in the introduction, and the screaming during the second verse and outro. This made the song more consistent with our new, heavier direction, injecting a bit more energy and highlighting the contrast between hope and sorrow that is evident in the lyrics.

Songs We Ripped Off Musical Inspirations

Incidentally, this song has drawn comparisons to many other songs (likely and unlikely).

• Kevin Clark, drummer for the magnificent ‘80s rock band the Raygun Administration, mentioned that the chorus melody sounds similar to “Backwater” by the Meat Puppets.
• The opening notes of the lead remind me of Neal Schon’s lead on Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’.” (If I only I had that hair... and those clothes... and that voice... you know they're good. Don't lie to yourself.)
• I actually wrote the chorus progression while under the subconscious influence of Breaking Benjamin’s “Breakdown.”
• Jeff Pike, former bassist and vocalist in Bad Charism, accurately described this song as “a Sevendust song.”
• The creepy, high guitar part that floats above the intro and the riff the transitions from the first chorus to the second verse is reminiscent of any number of Korn songs. 

Hear any other inspirations? Feel free to comment!