Here are some of the influences, decisions and processes that went into creating some of the music and lyrics for Before and After the Storm.
One day I was feeling a little under the weather and I ended up crashing out on the futon in our studio for some rest. At some point the next day when laying there in a bit of a fog, I was thinking about doing a song that was slow and dirgey. I think one of the best songs of the style is "The Eternal" from Joy Division's Closer, and this song was very much running through my head as I began to imagine the music that would become "Metallic."
When I was starting to feel a little better, I made it across the room to the computer, fired up Logic, and started composing. I'm not entirely sure where everything came from because I was in a bit of a daze, but as with most other tMitG songs, simply playing with various sounds and effects changed the tone and mood of the song as it developed. This song probably changed less than others during this process, but I'm always trying to throw some interesting tidbits into the composition even if the main parts are long and repetitive.
When I first heard the song, it immediately became one of my favorites of the album. I threw myself into it immediately. This wasn't necessarily the case with all the songs. Some songs I had to struggle with and really work hard. I was super excited about this one and I really wanted something different vocally. I wanted to tap into different sides of my voice and range that I hadn't really used before. The lyrical theme came to me right away. I heard the scraping noise that runs throughout and thought it sounded like metal. But I wanted to think about all different sights and sounds of metal and interplay them together. The words flowed with the vocal melody almost simultaneously. It was really a great outpouring of creativity for me.