Atreyu's Dan Jacobs takes us through the band’s tenth studio album.
“This album was written in the most unique way we have ever written in our entire career. It was mostly written in Tokyo, Japan, and San Juan Island in northern Washington State, with the last few songs and recording process being done in Los Angeles at our friend/producer Matt Pauling’s house. As of the past 10 years, we typically write in and around the studio we record in, which is usually in and around the Los Angeles area; but this time around, we wanted to do something special and completely different than anything we had done before.
“This idea was initially inspired by a long series of flights we would have to take as a band to play Hammersonic Festival in Jakarta, Indonesia, back in 2024. To get there, it would require two back-to-back 11-hour flights. We had an experience doing something similar back in 2019 for some shows we played in South Africa, and we all swore we would never put ourselves through such grueling travel again, as it physically and mentally took a toll on all of us traveling so far in such a short period of time. Once we saw that the travel to Jakarta would be similar, we decided we needed to break it up somehow to save our sanity. I looked into options and saw that Tokyo was a popular layover spot for flights from Los Angeles to Jakarta, so I proposed the idea that we stop there on our way and stay for a week to acclimate to the time change and break up the flying. To make it financially make sense, we figured let’s bring our producer and rent a house that we can write in every day, so that it’s a business trip and not coming entirely out of our pockets and ruining our budget for this festival in Jakarta. It ended up being one of the funnest writing experiences we have ever had and inspired us to write again on San Juan Island in WA. Brandon has an aunt that lives up there on the water, and her neighbor is a great friend of hers who let us borrow her house for a week so we could write in a super epic, quiet, remote location on the ocean. These two very different experiences played a lot into the vibe of the record and made it just that much more special. Here is some insight on each song and how it came about…”
The End Is Not The End
We wanted the initial opening of the album to hit you hard out the gates to wake up your senses, so we decided to slam in with a big, aggressive yell and a classic ring-out like we would do when writing more hardcore-influenced music back in the late 1990s. This was a popular move at the time at live shows and occasionally on record as well. Then, the following tapping part intros the journey to the end that you’re about to go on. This part was initially part of another song called ‘Burn Me Out’ that didn’t make the record. In the bridge of the song, there was a really cool tapping part we all loved. When it came time to pick which songs we wanted on the album, it made it hard for us to part ways with ‘Burn Me Out’, mostly because we loved that part. Since we loved the part so much and wanted to still use it somewhere, our producer, Matt Pauling, suggested we use it as part of an intro to the album. We, of course, all loved that idea and built the track around it.
Dead
This was actually the very first song we wrote, not only in Japan but for the record. Day one of being in Tokyo, we went out to lunch as a group and were talking about music and what we wanted to do with this album. While sitting at the table, Matt pulled out this device that records things, and then when you play it back, you can speed up or slow down what you just recorded, which sounds really cool if you manipulate it in different ways. He created this deafening pulsing blip sound that sounded really cool and inspired, first, the hammer-on pull-over part in the intro, which we then came up with the riff for and built from there. Lyrically, Brandon inspired the initial idea by saying, “What if we wrote about what people would actually feel if we died? Would anyone care?” which is something that I’m sure a lot of people feel at times, and we wanted to write about wondering if people actually care or not. You can feel this is the first song we wrote because it has a little bit of everything we like to do with our lyrics and music all in one song. Big riffs, big chorus, guitar solos, heavy parts, fast parts, slow clean parts, you name it. We went all in on this one and knew from day one it would be the first song on the record. It was meant to be!
Break Me
This song was written in Japan and was an idea Travis brought to the table. He had most of the music written and recorded already, so he played it for us and we loved it, so we went to work on it from there. Lyrically, it’s about people that try to bring you down or break your spirit and overcoming them. We can so easily, as humans, be negatively affected by the words and actions of others, so this song is about not letting it break you. That night, we were working on the lyrics for the song, and Brandon in particular was out in the city at the time, so when we had finished and started tracking ideas, Porter tracked one of the verses to document the idea. When Brandon returned and we all listened through it, we agreed that Porter sounded so good that we should just have him do that part, which would be the first recorded clean vocal/verse that he would have ever sung on an Atreyu song, which was a cool addition to the song. It really complements the shift in vibe that the second verse has and takes the song to another level. Also, the solo that Travis wrote for this is easily one of the coolest and most unique solos he has ever written. Just an all-around big song with a lot of fresh flavors.
All For You
We wrote this one in Japan, and it was initially from a chorus idea I had written on piano and saved as a voice note on my phone. I had the main line “I did it all for you,” the chords, and the melody for the chorus, but needed to finish the lyrics and build the rest of the song out. Luckily our band is great at this, so when I brought this to the table, they were all excited about it and got right to work on it. We wanted it to have slower, heavy parts in the verses and open up into a huge chorus. Lyrically, it was inspired by doing everything you can to make someone happy and losing yourself in the process. Structurally, we added extra guitar-forward musical parts at the end of the second verse and all through the bridge to give it a classic Atreyu vibe but blended with the big arena rock side of our sound. The song came out huge-sounding and is now the main single we are currently pushing on the album.
Ghost In Me
This idea was musically the brainchild of Travis and was worked on at Matt’s house, being one of the final songs we wrote for this album. As Travis does, he played us a fully recorded music-only demo of it and we ran with it from there. The lyrics were actually inspired by the melody idea for the chorus that I initially hummed over the empty chorus while we were all sitting around listening to it on loop trying to think of something. I took a stab at it, and the mumbled melody I sang ended with “I try” and sparked us writing lyrics about letting someone down. It’s amazing what can come out of just mumbling some ideas and throwing out whatever words work in the moment that flow well with the melody and seeing what it inspires. Some of the greatest songs of all time have been written that way, so it is always a fun tactic to get the creative juices flowing. Something that makes this song even more special is that it is the first song we have ever done an alternative version of completely sung in German. Porter lives in Germany and his wife is German, so we had a great support team to help us make sure the lyrics translated correctly and were pronounced correctly. It came out really cool, so we are excited for the Germans to hear it.
Glass Eater
Glass Eater was written in San Juan. It rooted from an idea that Matt and I had of including both a Gary Glitter-style shuffle beat and some Thin Lizzy-style harmonized guitar parts under some screaming vocals and building to a huge chorus and harmonized guitar solo. We have never written a song before that has all the feels this song has, and I absolutely love it. The lyrics were inspired by Porter. We were out at lunch one of the days, and while walking back to our boat to head back to the house, he saw someone wearing a shirt he thought at a quick glance said “glass eater.” He thought it sounded cool, and that led to the idea of a glass eater being someone who is always negative and a Debbie downer.
Wait My Love, I’ll Be Home Soon
Another song that was written in Japan. It started from an idea I had to make this upbeat, trotting Iron Maiden-type song that Matt suggested we have break down into a slower, driving part. After trying the idea out, it felt like they didn’t fully go together and sounded like two different songs in the works. I then suggested we ditch the Iron Maiden part for now and focus on writing a slow, powerful song based off the idea Matt proposed. From there, we all jumped on the lyrics. Brandon inspired this one with wanting to write about being away from a loved one at home, initially saying his wife, but then later feeling it was even more related to his children. We all chimed in with similar feelings of being away from loved ones at home while we’re gone for long periods of time touring, whether it be a significant other, family member, children, pets, or whomever it is that anchors you back home and gives you purpose to not only keep going but to come home when we’re done. It, to go along with the theme of the album, could also be about dying and finding your way “home.” For the solo on this one, I kept it very melodic to uplift the song when it gets to the bridge and complement how the song continues to grow and give closure all the way to the end. Fun fact: we took an idea from the Taylor Swift playbook, and the song title is the first word of the first line of every line in the verses of the song.
Ego Death
This initial idea was started by Brandon in San Juan. It was a much slower song at first, and after completing the demo and sitting on it for a bit, we didn’t quite feel it landed just yet. Months later, we went to Matt’s house to finish writing and decided the theme of the lyrics and some of the parts were cool but needed some love. While sitting in a circle in the studio stewing over this, Brandon had essentially the entire idea for the reimagined version pop into his head, and once he explained it to us, we loved it and went right into finishing up the song. Some songs come together right there in the initial moment they are conceived, and others need to sit on the shelf for a bit to age to perfection before we can start to chew on them again and finish what we started. Lyrically, it’s inspired by getting rid of yourself and becoming one with the universe. Just letting go of who you are and embracing oneness in the universe.
Death Rattle
We wrote this song at Matt’s house, and it was another brainchild of Travis who, in typical Travis fashion, brought in a fully recorded music-only demo that sounded amazing; so we went to town on it cleaning up anything we wanted to change structurally and then writing the lyrics to it. Lyrically, this is about facing death, and a death rattle being the noise you make when you’re at the final stage of dying and you’re essentially almost all dried up with a throat full of fluid, which makes gurgling or rattling-like noises as you take your final breaths. My favorite lyric, though, is a line Travis not only came up with but says in the song before his solo: “cool mutha fucka say UH.” He has been making this joke for years and we have joked about putting it in a song one day, but it never felt just right until this song. It’s definitely a highlight moment on the record that makes us all chuckle every time we hear it.
Children Of Light
Another Tokyo-written song. This one was initially inspired by a joke Brandon was making at lunch one day referencing a classic Ben Stiller line from the movie Zoolander. We thought it would be funny to take the line “What is this? A center for ants?” and drag out the “ants” part on repeat: “a center for ants? Ants ants ants ants ants ants…” leading into a huge tribal, Sepultura-inspired drum-only intro. The Zoolander intro didn’t make the final cut, but it was a fun way to inspire a song. The further we got into the writing process, the more we started thinking how cool it would be if we actually got Max Cavalera, originally from Sepultura, to do vocals on the track. It initially started as kind of a joke because we never thought he would actually do it. But once the song was finished, we knew we had to at least ask him and see what happens. Well, luck was on our side because he said yes, and it took the song to a whole other level that we love so much; we cannot thank him enough for gracing our song with his presence. Fun fact and most importantly: this is my mom’s favorite song on the new record!
In The Dark
This was a San Juan-written jam that I brought to the table with the idea of having an epic bridge that featured a saxophone solo AND a guitar solo that go back and forth and eventually harmonize with each other. I have played saxophone once before on our Pronoia Sessions album we released a few years ago, but this was our first official new song we have written that features me playing both a saxophone and guitar solo in the same song. Lyrically, it’s about a fall from grace, a death of what you once were.
Afterglow
We started and finished this song at Matt’s house. It was inspired musically by Matt, who mentioned we have never done a song just like this before and it would be a great addition to the album to help round off the missing vibes we were looking for while finishing up the songwriting. Because it would be one of the more ballad-like songs on the album, we wanted to have lyrics that really hit home, so we went with a theme inspired by Brandon: one of his daughters telling him that she has nightmares about him not coming home and how much of their lives you miss as a parent who travels a lot for work. It’s a subject a lot of hardworking people with children could relate to and was emotionally a hard one to write. The final product left us with all the feels and the hairs on our arms standing up, so we knew we had something special with this one.
Break The Glass
This was a song I initially brought to the table in San Juan. Matt and I hashed away at it trying to write an In Flames-inspired song with an almost Alice In Chains-style melody on the post-chorus. Brandon brought the lyrical idea based off an experience he had years ago where he fell on a wine glass he was carrying and sliced his arm open so bad he almost bled out and died. Luckily his wife tied a belt around his arm as a tourniquet and an ambulance was not too far away; otherwise, we wouldn’t be here talking about this right now. He’s okay now, for the most part, aside from a big scar and some loss of feeling in his pinky and ring finger, and we were able to make lemonade out of lemons by turning it into a really epic song. We only made it halfway through this song up until the piano part and sat on it until we were back at Matt’s house and insisted we needed to finish it. While trying to decide where to go with the song musically and lyrically after the second chorus, I threw out the idea of what if the story took a dark turn and you died? What if the song ends with this dark, almost funeral-like part and that’s how we end the record? I had the piano part which I had been playing around with for a bit and didn’t know what to do with it until this very moment. The somber piano fit perfectly as a way to start the “dying” process at the end of the song. We even put a nod to our song “The Theft” in the end of this song, as it also has a very dark, somber vibe that almost feels like part of the “life flashing before your eyes as you’re taking your last breaths” kind of thing. It felt like a great way to end the record, and if you let it continue to play, it flows nicely right back into the opening track, bringing everything full circle, hence, “the end is not the end.”
