Track Premiere: Beau Anderson – “As If”

ATL alt-rocker Beau Anderson has teamed up with Metal Insider to premiere his latest single, “As If,” out October 9th. The track hits with sludgy riffs and heavy grooves, channeling a failing romance destined to collapse. “As If” is taken from Anderson’s debut EP, Soundtrack of Letting Go, which is scheduled to arrive on October 24th. Written and recorded with bassist Chase Brown and drummer Zach Neal, the EP blends stoner rock with dark lyricism.

Anderson comments:

“‘As If’ is about being talked into something that you know isn’t good for you, or going to work, and trying anyways. Because, at the end of the day, there’s a part of you that wonders. It’s kinda a battle of the head and heart type of thing I guess.

Musically, it’s the product of several days of messing around on guitar. Little riff ideas here and there. Then pulling out the looping pedal to see how they sounded together. Then I made a little demo of just the guitar parts. I’d listen and mumble some melodies along to the demos until I locked into the ones I felt best singing.

I always knew roughly what I wanted the drums to do, but it wasn’t until I went up to Zach’s house with this guitar demo (that was only two verses and choruses at that time) that I finally got to hear what drums would sound like on it. He used his son’s little electronic drum kit going through a Gojira drum plug-in (our favorite) on Logic and played pretty much exactly what I’d been imagining. He gave it actual life, as best as one can on a cheap e-kit midi controller. We started writing the rest of the music once we had the drums for the first half of the song. Then, honestly, it all kinda wrote itself. Also, Zach gets total credit for how the song ends. Those four stabs on that weird note was his idea and it’s glorious. I love unorthodox, uncouth endings of songs, and that’s a perfect example.

Chase and I took the new demo that Zach and I had made, and we sat there and wrote lyrics for it in like five minutes. We had other songs we wanted to get to. We worked with the melodies I’d been humming along to on my original demo and gave the syllables words. I had a few placeholder lyrics in the first verse that I wasn’t married to, but we ended up going with them anyways as a starting point, topic-wise, and went from there.

One of my favorite lyrics is, “I’ve cut out my eyes, what makes you think you could be the one to lead the blind,” simply because that first part is kinda grotesque, and it’s a metaphor, which I’m not really great at writing. I came up with that part based on the line before it. Chase had, “you trust at the speed of light,” and in a brilliant moment of word association (sarcasm) I thought, “light? Seeing. Seeing? Eyes. I’ve cut out my eyes.” Looking back my logic was kinda stupid, and it doesn’t make the most sense if you analyze it as much as I analyze things. haha. But like I said, we wanted to work on other things, so we went with it. Chase put a perfect bow on it by adding the, ‘what makes you think you can lead the blind?’

Recording this song was amazing. The tones we got were absurd. We started with the drums, which Zach took to a whole new level when he was actually able to get behind a real kit. He brought an unmatched feel to it all and dear god how I love those ghost notes. The main lead bouncy guitar part was simple to record tone-wise. We just wanted it to sound like a guitar, and it does. Hell, when the track starts you can hear the noise of the amp, which I love. But where we got crazy was the fuzz part.

Those big massive stabs were very, very important to me, I wanted them to be insane. In the opening sequence of the video game Bioshock Infinite, there’s a moment where you’re isolated on a secluded lighthouse in a storm, and these giant, menacing, earth shaking, all encompassing horn notes descend from the sky as it glows red. I wanted that. I wanted these stabs to hit like that moment in that game hit me playing it for the first time as a 13 year old. I think we got as close as a couple of jackasses in a garage with some amps, mics, and fuzz pedals could.

We used our, notoriously finicky, Third Man Plasma Coil for those verse stabs. It doesn’t even sound like a guitar, which was my goal. If you don’t know what you’re doing, or you aren’t patient, that pedal can be almost useless. You really have to work with it, and if you do, you’re rewarded beyond belief. For instance, a moment for the guitar players, for that low-ass note in the verses of that song, I’m fretting the 12th fret of the D string. That heaviness, that lowness, the growl, it’s all the pedal’s doing.

I was never really a singer before that point, and it’s a pretty low song in terms of my voice. I didn’t really know how to go about it. I’d be lying if I said it didn’t take a bit of liquid confidence, as all the songs did. As we were trying to figure it out, Chase said, “C’mon, think about it. You’re Josh Homme. It’s sexy. Give us that!” Putting on a bit of a character like that helped me kinda settle into the song more. Obviously, I had to reel it in and make it me still, but I tried to find a balance between my meek usual self and some confidence-rich sexyman with a voice like butter… which I’m not. Haha. But I can try to pretend. Also, that song would be nothing without Zach’s vocal harmony that kicks in on the second half of that bridge. It really takes that part to another level.”

Listen to the song below and pre-order the EP here:

Lyrics:

“Verse 1:
I don’t believe you love me
Like you think you do
It’s not the first time a love
Shined like gold when it was new
No
(You don’t want to miss out)
Oh
(I guess you’re gonna find out)
Pre-chorus 1:
I think it’s safe to say
I was right all along
‘Cause it’s too late
to walk away
Chorus:
(Oh)
You gave me your everything
As if we’re bulletproof
(Oh)
I gave you my everything
As if I wanted to
Verse 2:
You trust at the speed of light
But I’ve cut out my eyes
What makes you think that you
Could be the one to lead the blind=
No
(It’s a hard way to find out)
Oh
(Now you’re gonna miss out)
Pre-chorus 2:
The time has come to go
Right back where you belong
‘Cause all I know
Is this is wrong
Chorus:
(Oh)
You gave me your everything
As if we’re bulletproof
(Oh)
I gave you my everything
As if I wanted to
Bridge:
(Oh)
Maybe I’m missing out
(Oh)
(Oh)
But I’d rather not find out
(Oh)
Pre-chorus 3:
I told you so
Now say, “you’re wrong”
Chorus:
(Oh)
You gave me your everything
As if we’re bulletproof
(Oh)
I gave you my everything
As if I wanted to