Behind The Tracks: Forever May Fall - Who Are You (Single) (2023)

We wrote Who You Are in the summer of 2022. Colt & I [Fox] headed down to GA to work with Josh Landry on finishing up Afterglow and get something new knocked out. We loved working with Josh because both songs really just came out of conversations. The lyrics just kind of showed themselves the longer the conversations went on. We had a folder full of demos to start up with the next day, so we felt well prepared.

We left the studio on Day 1 and turned on Bad Omens' Death of Peace of Mind album for the drive back to our buddy's house. What do you want from me? came on and even though I'd heard that song 100 times by that point, this time it crawled into my head and under my skin and I looked at Colt like.. "Hey.. hear me out. F#$K them demos. Let's write something completely new that gives off this kinda vibe. I'm really feeling this right now." Colt chirped back with his usual "bet."

So we show back up to the studio and look at Josh like "Hey, that plan we had. Nope. Here. We wanna write something like this." Josh was on board so fast, both he and Colt put the music together in less than 8 hours.

Writing the lyrics, at first we had a few ideas of themes and stories, but ultimately, again, a conversation uncovered a mutual connection and shared experience between all 3 of us. It was clear we had found the subject. Simply put, dead "friends." And not the kind of dead where their lives have actually ended, but the kind of dead where the image and view you once had of them ceases to exist. I'd be lying if I said I didn't get goosebumps multiple times writing these lyrics.

Both Colt and I, specifically, had reflected on more relationships than we cared to count where finding out someone's true colors was the literal nail in the coffin of said relationships. It was the theme of "Out of all the ways you could have moved, you moved that way, huh?" It was becoming clearer that most of these relationships were with narcissistic people. Josh mentioned a documentary he had been watching; saying that there was something he felt was so profound; about people not being born as a narcissist; they're taught by behavior and their environment. We wound up using that at the end of the second verse, "It's sad, that narcissists aren't born, they're made."

After we got all the anger out in describing all the shitty ways these former friends had moved, the room grew a bit somber in a few moments of silence. It was almost as if we were taking a literal moment of silence, like at a funeral. If I remember correctly, I believe it was Josh who broke the silence, and it was just a short comment "it sucks, doesn't it?" And there we began talking about the pain you feel when these relationships crumble. It literally feels like mourning the death of a person. It's the death of the person you thought they were; cause once you see them for who they are, you don't get that former person back. It's like finding out the Wizard of Oz is the tiny man behind the curtain. It'd be like finding out the moon and the stars are just some cheap picture someone throws a backlight up to. And that's where we came up with the hook, "I saw you like the moon and all the stars now I see who you are." Name one person who doesn't look up at the moon and the stars with admiration, wonder, amazement. I think when you truly have the "why" or "how" behind that hook, it cuts much deeper. We reflected on the places we were then compared to now, and where those people wound up. It was safe to say we felt like we were in a much better place. But the chorus really speaks to the fact of us being able to make peace with walking away; it's the offender who gets to suffer with the consequences of their actions. That's where "how does it feel, when you can't be real with yourself" comes in. Are you going to deny forever that you were shitty? What's it going to feel like when you realized you were the problem?

The second verse was a roller coaster, both lyrically and vocally. Reflecting back on how we were the ones who had been wronged, yet those who had hurt us acted like we hurt them. They were the hostage in the crisis THEY created. I chimed in with a piece of advice my therapist had given me, about learning how words and actions come from within a person; and when you realize that malicious words and actions come from a place of internal unrest, you learn to not take anything personally. Josh helped us reconfigure that into the remaining bits of the second verse.

Calling back to the first pre-chorus of "No there's no one left, left to clean your mess" but this time around he sent me into the vocal booth and said something along the lines of "instead of being hurt this time, be pissed about it."

I remember in that moment, I had actually forgotten how to sing. I froze up a few times, and instead of pleading into the microphone, I lost my absolute shit.

I wasn't singing to a microphone in a booth anymore, I was burying the shit I'd carried for so long and made it known I had finally had enough. We kept that take, and it's what you hear in the finished track. I'm 98% of the time a super clean vocalist, and I remember the look on Colt's face when I stepped out of the booth. It was definitely an unspoken moment of understanding that we just opened some new doors.

For the video, we chose to run with the idea of mourning the death of the people we knew, and quite honestly, there was no "acting." It was pure emotion, and I bruised the hell out of my hand beating that casket. Tom Flynn is the easiest to work with in bringing an idea to life and he really captured the emotions well. It was also the quickest video shoot since there wasn't anything to make up. We had it done in 5 hours.

Listening to the song, at face value it's easy to walk away saying "damn, who hurt you?" But knowing the depths and emotions behind it, the metaphors, the underlying content, the pain, it'll probably hit you a bit differently.

Hopefully, it'll help someone alleviate the uncertainty and unrest of having to walk away from something or someone. Maybe it'll be closure. Who knows?