(Played 140 times)
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
“Alva” by The Motel life (bandcamp)
We lived at the bottom of a mountain
The avalanche was coming so we bought ourselves an apartment
This city is split in two and I’m stuck at the center
I’m lost and confused this was such a mistake
The words will follow you like the smoke in your lungs
You can’t speed up a heartbeat to tempo of your tongue
So let the crosswords fill with their letters
And I will think about the nights
We spent with each otherI have a picture where everyone is crossed out
Everyone that I’d like to forget about
I will never be better
When things were falling apart
you were there to pick me back upThere’s just something about the music that you play
That cuts me like a knife and keeps me awake
It may make me feel alone, but at least you feel alive
You’ve always been so good at going up
And singing a lieI have a picture where everyone is crossed out
Everyone that I’d like to forget about
I will never be better
When things were falling apart
you were there to pick me back upIt’s our way of saying this isn’t working out
Notes:
Mike – From a writing stand point “Alva” was always one of my favorite songs. It details the issues of a breakup and family problems that drove many of my relationships to the ground. I remember this song took a long time to finish. I recorded vocals for this song along with a couple other demos that I don’t think made the album one night in my room. The beginning verse was done early on in the writing process, but the rest of it wasn’t really completed until it was time to go to the studio. We do that quite often.Judcody – “Alva” was the result of having the house to myself and my brother’s mac to record. It was just a 2 minute long demo of me trying to play drums to a loop of guitars and piano. I had not intended on the song being a Motel Life track; which is funny to say because it wasn’t like I had anything else to do with it. I sent it to Mike because I wanted to get his opinion on it and he wrote to it before I could tell him not to. I loved what he had when he sent the song back and I’m glad I hadn’t kept it to myself. I’m sure it would’ve ended up just being another loop idea in the lost libraries of my iTunes.
Al - Remembering back to the beginning stages of “Alva” there was nothing I did initially to contribute to the song. The song was shown to Nick, our former bassist Lujan, and me in its completed form with Judcody playing all of the instruments on a simple, yet well-executed, Garageband demo. So my initial involvement in the song was nonexistent, but the song has still developed into quite the number for us. It always seems to find its way into our sets. It’s supposed to give us a break from all the intense rocking we do. Naturally all bands have these, they’re called ballads. But we still perform this song with the same intensity so it isn’t really a break.
Ray - When playing “Alva” in front of an audience my movements are inspired by a vision of mine in which I am waltzing hand and hand with the lovely Emma Watson; this is why it is my favorite song to play live.
Nick - the first time I heard “Alva” as a demo I had a feeling it was going to be a tough song to finish. With an odd piano part and interesting guitar lead, it sounded like something we hadn’t really tried before. It went through tons of changes and a lot of different drum parts. In the end, I kept it pretty simple but still added my own spin on it. Considering this song almost didn’t make the album, I’m very happy at the response it has gained from fans. What was once a song that we all couldn’t stand is now probably our most successful tune.
(via urbanintuition)
