"As a band, our identity is forged by what we've endured together, the highs and the lows of the past eight albums together. This is a song that we wrote looking back at our story: a band of brothers- sleeping in vans, armed only with words, melodies, and ambition, trying to conquer the world together. '1, 2, 3, 4, 5..." The odd count in was to introduce the brotherhood of the five of us. The inspiration for this song began in the bridge- "They said it's complicated, they said we'd never make it this far." These words and this melody came to me out of the blue and became the skeleton for the rest of the tune.
Over the course of 2013, we were completing an album and a movie, both titled "Fading West." Musically, our goals for the record were to match the exotic landscapes captured in the film with our instrumentation. To do this, we tried to rethink our use of traditional rock instruments or abandon them altogether. The verses of "Who We Are" are a great example of that line if thought. Instead of finding our guitar inspiration in the traditional western sources of Led Zep. Or The Beatles, we looked to Fela Kuti, a Nigerian musician.
The vocal layering in the chorus is another example of pushing ourselves out of our comfort zone. The song was pretty much completed, but we still felt like there was something missing. We toyed with changing the melody of the chorus, but it didn't feel quite right. Somehow the lyric wasn't connecting with it- it lacked the youth and spark in the identity that the chorus was singing about. The vocals didn't feel like they belonged with the rest of the track, as if they were not adventurous enough.
So we decided to bring the song home, literally. For me, my role in my daughter's life as a father is one of the highest privileges I could ever think of. Who better to sing about our identity than our children? So we brought our kids in to sing in the chorus, and all at once the song felt completed. Like a movie, the song took a trip around the world to finally find its place at home." -- Jon Foreman
"As a band, our identity is forged by what we've endured together, the highs and the lows of the past eight albums together. This is a song that we wrote looking back at our story: a band of brothers- sleeping in vans, armed only with words, melodies, and ambition, trying to conquer the world together. '1, 2, 3, 4, 5..." The odd count in was to introduce the brotherhood of the five of us. The inspiration for this song began in the bridge- "They said it's complicated, they said we'd never make it this far." These words and this melody came to me out of the blue and became the skeleton for the rest of the tune.
Over the course of 2013, we were completing an album and a movie, both titled "Fading West." Musically, our goals for the record were to match the exotic landscapes captured in the film with our instrumentation. To do this, we tried to rethink our use of traditional rock instruments or abandon them altogether. The verses of "Who We Are" are a great example of that line if thought. Instead of finding our guitar inspiration in the traditional western sources of Led Zep. Or The Beatles, we looked to Fela Kuti, a Nigerian musician.
The vocal layering in the chorus is another example of pushing ourselves out of our comfort zone. The song was pretty much completed, but we still felt like there was something missing. We toyed with changing the melody of the chorus, but it didn't feel quite right. Somehow the lyric wasn't connecting with it- it lacked the youth and spark in the identity that the chorus was singing about. The vocals didn't feel like they belonged with the rest of the track, as if they were not adventurous enough.
So we decided to bring the song home, literally. For me, my role in my daughter's life as a father is one of the highest privileges I could ever think of. Who better to sing about our identity than our children? So we brought our kids in to sing in the chorus, and all at once the song felt completed. Like a movie, the song took a trip around the world to finally find its place at home." -- Jon Foreman