We, like John Vesely (AKA Secondhand Serenade), are drawn to anything classically epic: OneRepublic's latest single, "Stop and Stare," Jane Child's "Don't Wanna Fall In Love," the 2008 presidential election.
And epic is exactly how he wanted his track, "Like a Knife," off his new album, A Twist In My Story, to sound.
See what inspired "Like a Knife," and check out his previous Buzzworthy posts about writing and recording "A Twist In My Story" and "Fall For You."
I love "Like a Knife" because it's really big. I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted this song to sound like, but the trick was actually having it end up sounding like it did in my head. It was the first song that me and Danny Lohner -- my producer -- worked on when we started the album. Brandon, the former drummer of the Used, came in and laid down an AMAZING foundation for us to work with. From there I just started adding the layers. I wanted to give it a really epic feel. All the parts came really naturally, and it turned out sounding better than I imagined. Needless to say, it was a pretty good start for the album.
I wrote this song when I was going through a very hard time in my life. I was trying to make a career in music and it wasn't helping my relationship. At that point it was still just a dream, and I felt like I had to make a choice. It's a song about desperation. I didn't want to face a decision like that but it felt like there was no way out of it. This went on for months, so I was in a pretty dark place.