ABOUT A SONG - "Kill Me Dead"

I realized that our blog often times doesn't talk much about our music. That's fine though. As a wiser man once said, "Talking about music is like dancing about architecture" or something along those lines. Still, we wanted to give you, dear dear reader, some insight into what's behind our songs. That said, I present the first installment of the new feature, "About A Song", featuring the track "Kill Me Dead" from our debut "Running with the Wasters".

"KILL ME DEAD"

Before The Takeover UK existed in earnest, I failed in my attempt to start the band in Boston where I was attending college. I hooked up with a good friend of mine Lee and we recorded an album in various apartments around Allston over the course of a year. Four of the songs ended up being our first demo in 2004.
I moved back to Pittsburgh and The Takeover had it's first practice the day I got back in June. That summer we practiced like madmen in the garage at Nic's parent's house. Soon enough, we'd played our first show and many more were to follow. The beginnings of the band yielded many songs that Nic and I had written over the years and brought in to the band. The first year or so, let me tell you, we sounded much different than we do on our debut. Still, some songs made it through the years and onto the album. "Kill Me Dead" is one of them.
I'd left Boston for good, but I'd also left behind a girlfriend. I'd subleted a room at an apartment with 3 girls already living there. She had been my roommate, then my girlfriend. Normally that would be a bad idea, but I was only there for 6 months. We tried to do the whole long distance thing (LD relaash, as some may call it) over the summer, which really just entailed me calling her in the wee small hours of the morning after a night out boozing with the band. Come September, I'd booked a flight to Boston for a long weekend.
Immediately upon arriving, things were different between us. There was a distance, awkward silences and all that good stuff. We tried to go about like I had never left but that was an exercise in futility. Still, we tried to make the best of it.
She had to work one day, so I went over to Lee's apartment and we tracked a new song I'd written back at home. When we'd finished the music and it was time to do vocals I realized I had nothing, no lyrics. Not even the germ of an idea. We decided to take the night off and come back to it the next day, hoping the lyrical muse would vist in the meantime.
I went back to the girlfriends apartment. She'd gotten a new dog, and she was smitten. I'd seen girls that were all about their dogs before, but she took it to a new level. I was able to tear her away from the dog long enough to take her to dinner. When we finished she said she was tired and wanted to go lay down. It was 8 PM. I took her back home then went out to meet Lee at a bar. We proceeded to get pretty boozed up and I stumbled back home after last call. (I know this makes me boyfriend of the year, but please, hold your applause).
By the time I'd crawled back into bed, she was fast asleep snuggled up with the new love of her life. I honestly don't remember what happened next, but she woke up and was none too happy with me. (Surprise, Surprise) Words were exchanged and all of our frustrations over trying to make an impossible situation work came tumbling out.
I may or may not have threatened to throw the dog out the window.
A pile of her clothes however, went straight out the window and landed in the branches of a tree outside. I was rightly told to take my leave, which I quickly did. It was 3 AM.
I wandered around Allston aimlessly for a bit, drinking coffee to sober up. I chatted with a few homeless buddies I'd known from my years haunting the streets there. I called Lee. No answer. Doubtlessly he was fast asleep as I should have been if I wasn't so stupid. 3 or 4 hours dragged by with me sitting on the curb outside a convenience store. Finally Lee answered at 8 AM. After explaining my predicament, he told me to come over, which I quickly did.
The next night we laid down the vocals to the new song. Of course, the lyrical muse had visited me. I had some things I needed to say.
Now you know the genesis of said song. I can't say that most of our songs are rooted in specific stories like this one, but I figured it was a good song to start off our new feature. We'll be back soon with another installment.
Until then,
Mark