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LoveLikeFire - Tear Ourselves Away

Ann Yu (vocals, guitar) tells us about the tracks on the band's debut album.

San Franscisco four piece LoveLikeFire will release their debut album 'Tear Ourselves Away' on 14th September through Heist Or Hit Records (pre-order it here).

Ann Yu (vocals, guitar) tells us about the tracks on the album; where they came from, how they were written, and tricks used in recording.

1. 'Good Judgement'
Believe it or not, this idea came from my love of Swedish indie pop and when the Swedes do shoegaze, it makes me melt. Funny thing is though, there were several times in the studio where I feared it would sound too metal and really tried to stay pure to the roots of the idea, the bandmates were pretty amused that I could think this song could come even close to metal. My mind does funny things to me sometimes especially when creative.

2. 'Signs'
This is a tale of unrequited love, I've had a couple of boyfs in my life, half boyfriend, half friend, and I really wanted to express the urgency and confusion of that. You spend all your time with your boyf, you talk on the phone relentlessly, make each other laugh, know there is chemistry and tension, and are bonded to eachother, and consequently you make no room for a real boyfriend because of it. So confusing!

3. 'Crows Feet'
I grew up in a nice neighborhood where all the kids drove better cars than the teachers and I was always resentful of the laziness and entitlement these kids exhibited. I've also been with people like this and have had friends like this, people who live "charmed lives" and as they get older they become more and more unaware how self absorbed, unmotivated, and soulless they continue to become. 'Crow's Feet' is about resenting that.

4. 'From A Tower'
This song was actually on a self released EP of ours called 'Ocean in the Air'. So when it came time to record it again, we hadn't been playing it in a long while and I actually forgot my own lyrics to it when it was time to track vocals. Solution? I google searched the song and printed the lyrics from someone else's LoveLikeFire lyrics page, at the studio! Wow.

5. 'William'
This song is near and dear to me, although you shouldn't play favorites but the creation of the song was extra special. I didn't really focus too much on the chord progression or melody but more on the story which was a unique way of writing for me. It's a collage of childhood experiences related to love, loss, and following your gut. The melody and chords came very easily after the story was written and I'd just bought a new reverb pedal which was very much a strong element in the song.

6. 'Far From Home'
This was a really fun song to track in the studio. All of us were given sticks and different drums, and we pounded to the beat for most of the song to give it a sense of urgency and free spirit. Drums are a pretty primal instrument and it was so much fun to use the force of the your entire self to pound away on a drum, which is very much in the spirit of the song itself.

7. 'Boredom'
This song was written with the intent of exploring the major keys. We rarely use major chords and this song was very much stemming from a "let's try a song using a happier sounding chord progression" mentality. Of course, the song is about not having any clear future which isn't the happiest of topics but still.

8. 'I've Pissed Off My Friends'
Take notice of the drum tones on this song, we taped a bunch of tshirts to Dave's drums to get this tone, can you hear the muffled overtones of cotton?

9. 'My Left Eye'
This song was written late one night in my bedroom when I was thinking about how much weaker my left eye is than my right, and it got me to thinking about other weak spots that are a part of me, and it was just the perfect bedroom songwriting moment. We wanted to capture that intimacy on the album so we kept the arrangement sparse.

10. 'Stand In Your Shoes'
Of all the songs on the album, this one is the most traditional straight ahead tunes we have and very much so because we wrote it with that intention. It's a no fuss, pure and simple rock song, sometimes, that's what you want to write and what you want to hear.

11. 'Everything Must Settle'
I wanted to blend a dreamy element to a 50s pop song element and this is what came from that. It's about endings. Very few people stay with you short of your family and sometimes not even your family, all things seem to end.