Behind The Tracks: Raviner - By The Throat (Single) (2024)

As a songwriter, I went through a season of mostly songs navigating a whirlwind relationship and the tumultuous breakup that followed. Several years of healing, grieving, processing, etc. I definitely wrote from a deeply internal and confessional place. However, “By The Throat” came about after taking some time to observe and absorb the world around me - the pandemic and its after-effects that engulfed us, deep financial concerns, and mental health concerns in my friends and family in the aftermath of all of that…this song rages and wars against all of it. I think all of us in the band were feeling the weight of all of that and were ready to get out in the creative process. It was certainly cathartic.

The writing process, at least for me, felt much more external rather than internal, and I believe the music reflects that. It’s aggressive, driving, and at times, chaotic.

However, there are moments in this track that feel truly beautiful and vulnerable. Underneath the anger, rage, frustration, etc, is a deep yearning for something more hopeful, something lighter for sure. Our bassist/backing vocalist Jordan did a stunning job writing the second verse lyrics that dig into this - “finding, something, a ray of hope on a different day, guide me, slowly, before it all drifts away”. Truly my personal favorite part of the track, aside from the killer breakdown that our drummer Christian and guitarist/producer Matt absolutely crushed in writing and composing. In Raviner’s history, it wasn’t always collaborative in this way.

Surprisingly enough, we were inspired by a mixture of both classic R&B, as well as some modern rock and metal. Our two references specifically were Sade’s “No Ordinary Love” and “Like A Villain” by Bad Omens, among plenty of others.

This song started out in the writing room with my drummer and me - he was laying down a groove and this simple vocal hook of “don’t hide it, don’t fight it, they’ve got us by the throat”, and the rest of the pieces started building slowly from there. It truly was a collaborative effort that we're incredibly proud of.

Something interesting that happened in the writing process was that “By The Throat” ended up utilizing two musical ideas we had on the docket that we weren’t sure what to do with. We had this driving drum groove heavily inspired by 80s / 90s R&B, and this chant-like vocal riff. Aside from that, we had this arpeggiator-driven industrial synth track we were working with. Our drummer Christian and I both realized the two ideas belonged together. The rest of the band ran with it and elevated it so much from there. It’s amazing how beautifully and messily collaborative the process was. Nothing manufactured whatsoever.

I want to specifically commend our guitarist and producer Matt (Avenue Recording Company) for his stellar production on this. He dug so incredibly deep and experimented with a ton of innovative production styles and techniques to give it an incredibly powerful sound that is both heavy-hitting and beautifully enjoyable to listen to. As aggressive and visceral as the track is, it sonically “feels good”. We hope our listeners agree.

I definitely think there is a certain dystopian, sometimes futuristic, theme going throughout the track sonically and the lyrics. Wrestling with timeless human concerns as well as modern unknowns. Films shows, and books like “Bladerunner”, “Handmaid’s Tale”, and “1984” were highly influential in the visual aesthetic of the music video as well as the lyrical themes and production motifs in the track.