Last month alternative-rock band Ravenscode released their debut full length album, District of Broken Hope. Bass player, Michael Davidson, took the time to chat with us about the song “Hyde” from their full length. How this song came to be is quite and interesting story and worth the time to read. Check it out below.
Background
““IF EVER I READ SATAN’S SIGNATURE UPON A FACE IT IS ON THAT OF YOUR NEW FRIEND”
These are the spoken words that intro the Ravenscode song “Hyde”. What a ride this particular song has taken us on. I don’t think we have ever had a song written from so many different perspectives, or have its name changed as many times, as this one. The original chord progression went with a song called “Angel Eyes”. This progression was the only portion to make the transition into the finished version. Drew (drummer) took the notes and came up with a melody that caught the attention of all of us in the band. During our week long trip at the cottage along Lake Ontario where we did a lot of writing for this album we decided to go all out with this song. Everything was hashed out to what we thought was perfect. With the groovy bass line playing throughout the song, and the dark melodic guitars, it started to take form.
Now for the words. We had both singers (Brian and Justin) Take their acoustic guitars into separate rooms in order to come up with some lyrics (while Mike and Drew killed Zombies on Xbox). When they were finished, it turned out that they each had a very different ideas for the story that this song should tell. Brian wrote lyrics based off of the story DR. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. His lyrics dealt with the concept of battling with your own personal demons of dark side (Mr. Hyde) ” I know I will remember you when we all have seen your face”. Justin on the other hand had recently been watching the tv show Mantracker and had written his lyrics about the show, with lines such as “we picked up your trail, footprints on the ground”. At first we laughed at how different these two sets of lyrics were, but upon a second glance, we started to notice similarities. Somehow we were able to put the two sets of lyrics together into one song with a powerful chorus and a story that left the listener wanting to know more.
At the time, the song was called “My Old Friend.” Our producer suggested that we add some spoken words to the intro and we chose the above quote from the story Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde as we felt it set the ominus tone we were looking for. About 3 days before the album was sent to the printer, we voted unanimously to change the name of the song from “My Old Friend”, to “Hyde”, which we felt tied in the story as well as the Mantracker angle as it is a show basically in which you must hide. And that’s the story of how this new song came together. The moral of the story being that no song is ever truly about just one thing, music is what you make it, and a song can be whatever you want or need it to be.”
Lyrics
Tonight we will see
What is in store
Have you held up your end again?
Well I’ll be here
Waiting for you
I hope I can count on you my friend
Everyone knows
The risk involved
And you know it never ends
To fight is a must
For all who can see
With broken bones that will not mend
I know I will remember you
When we all have seen your face
There is nowhere to run, it’s true
We will search in every place
You scattered away
Without a trace
Where you left us all behind
We picked up your trail
Footprints on the ground
And we’ll follow your every sign
You will soon know
We’re coming for you
With only one thing on our minds
Now we’re closing in
Your times running out
And there’s no place left to hide
I know I will remember you
When we all have seen your face
There is nowhere to run, it’s true
We will search in every place
You can’t hide from this world, my old friend
We will hunt you down, each day and night
We’ll pull you out of the ground again
Just when you think you’re out of sight
You can’t hide from this world, my old friend
We will hunt you down each day and night
We’ll, pull you, out of the, ground again
Just when you think you’re out of sight
