Welcome to Singled Out! where we ask artists to tell us the inside story of their latest single. Today Stuedabakerbrown frontman Pete Marotta tells us about "Semi Automatic" from their album "Strangers We'll Become". We now turn it over to for the story:The song "Semi-Automatic" started as a two-chord riff created by Mike. It was given its name for no other reason then we needed something to reference it, and Mike thought of "Semi-Automatic" randomly. Steve then began to play a part on his guitar that could compliment Mike's, which later became the main riff in the verse. The rest of the song was created by jamming off of those two chords including the creation of the second half of the verse, which really made the song come to life for us.
We liked the instrumentation so much that, structurally, we made sure we left space for the song to expand and gain momentum (which you can hear after the second chorus). At the time we were writing the song, Bloc Party and Minus the Bear heavily influenced us, particularly the atmospheric moods they create in their songs.
Melody always takes precedence over lyrics at the start for me so I did not have the lyrics until much later on. In fact, I had a different melody for the chorus for some time, which I still love, but in the end we decided to go with a melody that was less choppy to give it a different and bigger feel than the verses.
The lyrics are really a conversation with love as if it were a physical being, but I like that the lyrics can be interpreted into any relationship whether it is with a lover, family member, God, etc…
We chose the song as a single because we felt it captured all of the elements of how our sound has progressed in the process of creating Strangers We'll Become. It is a song full of passion with an indie feel and a wide-open melodic chorus. It also encompassed the main lyrical theme from the album of struggling against the fragile nature of one's relationships in life.
Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen for yourself and learn more about the album - right here!
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