"Collapse": Behind The Scenes pt. I

We just posted the first of two behind the scenes videos of us working on and rehearsing the new song we have called "Collapse." We will post part II tomorrow.

In this part we discuss the arrangement of the song, specifically the order of the parts. We tried to put a fresh twist on a tried and true song structure with this one. An overwhelming majority of songs are written with a structure that is very similar to, if not exactly, this: Intro, Verse, Chorus, Verse, Chorus, Bridge, Chorus, Outro (IVCVCBCO).

Now there is nothing wrong with songs arranged this way, in fact a number of our songs have this exact structure, and there's a lot of logical support for writing a song with this shape. The intro sets up the song, the first two combinations of verse and chorus are the meat of the song that make the big artistic statement, especially the chorus since it's repeated usually identically every time. By the second time through the chorus, however, the listener is ready for a change, so you bring in the bridge to freshen things up a bit, and then go back to the chorus to hammer home whatever point you're trying to make before finishing with a nice outro. It makes perfect sense.

However, it can be a nice shock to throw curveball every once and a while and do a variation of this structure. That's what we did with "Collapse." The song is pretty much the IVCVCBCO structure we talked about before, however instead of going to the chorus right after the first verse, we repeat the intro part and go back to the verse. The rest of the song is the same structure, but it's like having a first verse that's twice as long with a short interlude in the middle to add some flavor. Like we said, not a radical change, but enough to put a fresh twist on a tried and true song structure. Here's how the discussion went down. (For the record Brian was right about adding the third verse, since that's what keeps the song somewhat in line with the IVCVCBCO structure.)

CHECK BACK TOMORROW FOR PART II!!

Collapse: Arrangement Discussion