We had the honor of being featured in Provo City's annual Christmas album alongside many other amazingly talented musicians. The Provo Christmas album is a great local tradition, and 100% of album sales go to benefit the United Way's Sub for Santa program.

This demo was the one we submitted as a concept. We had to make it a little more subdued and turn the distortion down a bit to be featured on the album, but we liked this rockin' bluesy version so much that we wanted to make it available to everybody!

If you want to hear the album version of this song too, you can find out more info about the Provo Christmas album at provomayor.com/provo-christmas/ and you can purchase it at http://merrychristmasprovo.com

God Rest Ye Merry (Demo)

No Lemons Never

Lady Misfortune

Reason For Grievance

The third track on our EP, "Always Sorry", happened on one of Mitch’s sick days. He had just finished watching the documentary “The Minimalists” and was still feeling too under the weather to get out and about. He used the downtime to write the chords and words to the song.

The lyrics were inspired by an experience Mitch had after arguing with someone close to him. Almost immediately after the argument, he realized that many of the frustrations he had with the other person were things of which he, himself was also guilty. The song is about the realization that it’s foolish to point fingers because those pointing fingers are also often at fault.

The time change at the start of the outro was inspired by the grandiose choruses of Mumford and Sons that Mitch listened to throughout high school.

When Mitch brought the song to the band, Jordan had the idea to bring in the harmonica, and it really carried the song in a new direction that the band loved. The band recorded a separate version of the track that includes little snippets of studio chatter and goofing around in the studio. They are planning on releasing the alternate version of the song in the near future.

Always Sorry

Track 2 is called "Steel Rusted Through". It draws inspiration from the Black Keys’ fuzzy, riff-driven choruses and frat-rock rhythms. Mitch wanted to experiment with non-standard tuning, so he wrote the song in open tuning, which allowed for some variation in the riffs (and for Jordan to play some sweet slide guitar licks). While rehearsing the song the first few times, Zane switched to a half-time drum part during the last chorus, which the band loved, and decided to keep in the song.

Throughout the verses, the singer relates himself to an old beater car, whose “chatty suspension recounts the loads [it’s] borne…” This refers to the trauma and burdens each individual brings to a relationship, based on experiences they’ve had in the past.

Mitch really wanted the outro to contrast the rest of the song’s flavor to highlight the change to a vulnerable tone. The lines, “How could you love a fool such as I? Sometimes even I want to see me die, and I’m afraid to lose you by asking why” are repeated throughout the outro. These lines reference the pain of imperfection that’s compounded when someone you love becomes intimately acquainted with, and potentially hurt by your imperfections.

On one occasion, the band was playing the song at a Battle of the Bands event, and Mitch broke a string during the song. One of the judges gave him a verbal whipping for having played two songs with a broken string. When the band contested that it was actually a single song, the judge persisted, saying that it was two separate songs. Apparently, Mitch's effort to create two contrasting sections was a success!

Steel Rusted Through

The track "21st Century Blues" began with Mitch and Jordan experimenting with songs in the style of "prison blues" with heavy beats, slow repetitive riffs, and somber lyrics. 

In true Lennon/McCartney collaborative fashion, Mitch came up with a guitar riff that became the verse, Jordan came up with the contrasting uptempo chorus, and Jordan wrote the lyrics to the verses while Mitch wrote the words to the chorus. The melody for the chorus was inspired by an old prison song recorded in 1947 called "Rosie" (which was also coincidentally used as the hook for a David Guetta/Nicki Minaj song called "Hey Mama" that was released in 2015, but none of us had heard that song prior to finishing 21st Century Blues). 

Lyrics-wise, Mitch and Jordan toyed around with the idea of using the imagery of a prison to represent the things that hold us down and keep us "in prison" in our own modern lives, like depression, dejection, failure, anxiety, fear of the future, etc. The lyrics metaphorically represent the struggles of modern life.

21st Century Blues

Jordan Riley - Guitar, Vocals, Keys
Mitch Howell - Guitar, Vocals
Bob Scott - Bass, Guitar
Zane Hales - Drums

Salem Witch Doctors

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