channeled in a way . I have this emotion and this feeling , I don ’ t know what it means . Sometimes it starts with a hook , like “ End of the World .” I had that hook and was like what does this even mean ? Then it ’ s a process of discovery – what is this song about ? It kind of evolves that way for me . “ All I Want ” – that was the first song we really collaborated on . The other songs were ideas that I already had that came with mostly structured songs that we maybe arranged a little . “ All I Want ” was one of those songs where Ace played me this demo and holy shit it just inspired me right away . I sat down and wrote all those words probably in a night . I don ’ t always get to write like that . So that was our first real true collaboration . “ Will I Make it Home ” was a song where it just happened to be I was driving a lot , commuting a lot , and I had this idea come to my head . I was actually thinking at the time imagining what it was like being a truck driver , being on the road all the time , wondering if you ’ re going to make it home to see your family . As the words started to come around I really discovered this story about , from the perspective of someone who , and I was in the military . I wasn ’ t at war , and didn ’ t do anything crazy . There ’ s people who have done way better things than I ever had . Kind of putting myself in those shoes of what it would be like . I remember when I was young my dad was in the Coast Guard and he ’ d be gone and mom ’ s having to kind of raise her kids alone . One thing I don ’ t specifically like is going and getting an album and you listen to it from beginning to end and it sounds like the same . You don ’ t know what song you ’ re in . It ’ s all the same . There ’ s nothing different . This is why I like bands like Pearl Jam . You can listen to them and their songs really are all over the place .
“ After the Fall ” connected with me on the first lyric . You talk about it and I ’ m starting to feel tight . It ’ s about as close to the perfect song as you ’ re going to get .
MICAH : The backstory on the song is , I wrote that song and we recorded it almost 2 years ago , before this happened ( speaking of the untimely passing of his wife , Holly ). I actually struggled with releasing this song and “ End of the World ” because both of those songs tell stories of the end of a relationship , the end of something . What was weird is it wasn ’ t actually happening , I didn ’ t know it was happening . To kind of get personal for a second , my wife got sick almost
a year prior , and almost died . We were about to release those songs and I said no , I don ’ t want to release them because it felt like it ’ s almost prophetic in a
way , Like it was predicting the end . But they were songs that kind of came from an emotion that I had been channeling and feeling and experiencing . She had also been sick . I didn ’ t want to release them because I was like , I feel like I ’ m bringing into existence these things that I ’ m writing about , so it was very hard . There ’ s something kind of brewing inside and I don ’ t necessarily know what that emotion is . The songwriting is a process of discovery for me and feeling what that is . I feel very empathetic and think about situations or struggling in a relationship . So the song “ End of the World ” we made a video about this kind of virus taking over the world and kind of made it funny . I wanted to kind of deflect , and not make a video that ’ s very literal , but it is . It ’ s about when relationships don ’ t survive and it feels like the world is ending . And “ After the Fall ,” they ’ re very painful experiences . I put things out that I feel very very emotionally connected to . It ’ s hard for me to write a song that isn ’ t some deeply personal feeling . I don ’ t think I could ever write a song that ’ s just about groupies . Yeah that may be a good time but it ’ s just not something that personally connects with me on an intellectual and deeply emotional level and I probably will never write songs like that . ( Continued on page 69 )
Page 35