Track #3, Everything to Your Cause

Origin

The notes on the lyrics say the 2nd draft was May 7, 2006, which makes this the most recent song in Everything to Your Cause, at 8 years old as of the time of the release in 2014.

Music & Production

This was an experiment to write a song that would be the opposite of the more common quiet-verse-loud-chorus convention.  Can I write a song with loud verses and quiet choruses?  I am a firm believer that sometimes a quiet whisper speaks louder than screaming at the top of lungs.  Deeply dissonant and crushingly heavy verses create a stark contrast to the quiet and resigned choruses.

The cello melody was created when we decided to incorporate that instrument, but now it’s hard to imagine this song without that eerie line.  The heavily processed lead guitar was originally meant to be a subtle emphasis of the chord melody, but toward the very end of mixing process I decided to make it more in-your-face, as it sounded unabashedly anguished.

A subtle touch you can hear in the choruses is a background noise I added — that section sounded empty and boring without something in the background.  I was having noise issues with my guitar amp so I just recorded it and mixed it in.

Lyrics

This severe of a song needs an equally severe subject matter.  War is not necessary a theme I incorporate often but this, “Raid” and “Web” all have references to it, making Everything to Your Cause an album about war.  In fact, we were considering name the EP Hidden War, but its lack of subtlety made it lose against the line taken from this song.

In a truly bizarre coincidence, I learned about Ali Ismail Abbas, the boy who lost both arms during the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, long after I had written this song.  So this song is not about him or was inspired by a true event — but it ended up being intertwined anyway.

Sunless war-torn zones
Arms lost beneath her terrace
Circle, missing piece
Price was everything to your cause

Lungs, broken ties
See mine add to the long arrays
Your harmless lies
Bleed each day more, sing praise
To promised land

Tangled, headless drones
Tarnish inside your palace
Circles, missing peace
I lost everything to your cause

Heads never rise
Bite away their lead sprays
Your armless lies
Bleed each day more, sing praise
To promised land
To promised land

Mindless man, mindless man
Must we go on
Mindless man, mindless man
Must we go on
To promised land
To promised land

Written by Ari Koinuma
Cover photo: “Harnas” by Joqui, lowres.nl