Please Reblog! We are posting our songs with notes from the the band members to spread the word about our music. Please support and reblog this post and encourage other people to reblog as well. There will be more songs with notes to come. -Mike
“Writing a Book” by The Motel Life (band camp)
I read those books you gave I understand what you’re trying to say
I read between the lines, the subtext of your actions
But I’ll never understand ‘til this day
You’re an asshole, plain and simple
And I’m just as gullible as you can deceive
You said that you hate me, but you ignore the truth
That it was you who rearranged the and changed who I knew
So I’m writing these books to remind myself I was wrong
That you are who you are and that you knew it all along
You knew it all along
Did they scare the day that you told them the truth?
These problems never seem so big until they were centered on you
You said that I was lost in my music
I didn’t notice until the day you were gone
Now these words are making more sense than ever before
I’m ending this chapter, I can’t shake this feeling anymore
These books will tell me where you’ve been
I made the first mistake of letting someone in
You are who you are, you’ll never change
Notes:
Mike – This song went through so many different edits. I remember writing it with Judcody one long night. We never had the ending so we left it alone for a long time. Considering the time difference between us beginning to write this song and actually completing it, there are a lot of different meanings to the lyrics. On the surface, it’s about friendship and growing apart, but look deeper and you’ll see this song is about pizza. This song also includes my favorite TML lyric, “You’re an asshole plain and simple”.
Judcody – “Writing a Book” makes me think of sitting in my garage and playing guitar. I started writing the guitar riff at Mike’s house during one of our late night delusional writing sessions. It then floated around in what I like to call “TML LIMBO” for a while until Mike and I felt the need to finish it. I believe this is one of the first songs Al and I worked on together during practice. It’s still one of my favorites to play live.
Al - If I remember correctly “Writing a Book” is the first song I help write after joining The Motel Life. I remember hearing the demo from Judcody’s Garage Band recording and writing my parts in my girlfriend’s living room after a show one night. It’s funny cause while Judcody and I were jamming it out, my GF’s kitten kept running back and forth through the living room. This song starts slow but it picks up pace and has a tremendous amount of intensity that is conveyed in our live show. In writing this song I remember I took elements from everywhere. There is some Kings of Leon, RHCP, Etc. Plus in this song I went towards using more of the middle strings of the guitar and utilizing those tones.
Ray - The second half of this song is probably my favorite second half of any of our songs. I also get to yell ‘wooooooo’ all by myself when we play it live so this song is alright by me.
Nick - I think “Writing a Book” was one of the first songs we had completed for Retreat. This is definitely the song that showed me where we were as a band and where we continue to head. Drum wise, this is my favorite to play live due to the fact that the ending is one big climax and we literally just let it out on stage. I get to show a lot of different techniques that I’m fond of including rim shots and just straight snare work. Our original bassist, Anthony, wrote exactly what the song called for and I still remember the giddy look on everyone’s face once it was complete. Ray came in and definitely made those parts his own once we entered the studio. Over all, the song would really not be exactly what it is today without everyone who was a part of it including the Producer, Dave Trautz, with the keyboard work he provided.
