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For six years the guys in California-based rock quartet Reported Failure put in non-stop work building a fanbase, earning a reputation, and improving their craft finally creating what they call "our masterpiece", and what critics have compared to the iconic works of Infinite and Mind. "Rome" the album has gone double platinum already since its release in June. Two months since its release the album went back to the top of the albums heat. The second single from the album, "Lunar Utero", picked up Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Rock Song at the first Goldies Award where Reported Failure also won Best Band. In total, Reported Failure have made themselves the most hyped band of 2013. Now after a year of work on their masterpiece album the band is ready to dot the i's, cross the t's, and conclude the greatest chapter of their career to date.
The final single from the monster-album is its final, and title track. The song features americana and folk-rock champion Brandon Caulfield. He worked with the band on the title track giving it a more powerful acoustic aesthetic mixing aggression with controlled folk and bluegrass undertones for a sound that takes Reported Failure to a new musical angle. "This is one of the most brilliant concluding tracks we've ever done" says frontman Billie Beckett. "Brandon Caulfield is incredible in everything he does this included. Choosing this song as the final single was an obvious choice. It concludes the whole album and is the only way to really conclude this part of our career. We want this song to really resonate with people just as much or more than the other singles because this song brings the key message of the album to light."
The single "Rome (featuring Brandon Caulfield)" is available now from studio 60 Records. It can be downloaded from itunes, amazon, etc, streamed on spotify, pandora, etc, or purchased as a 7" vinyl with the b-side "Awakening"
(From the original Rome Album Thread:)
Osprey037[Reported Failure wrote:;314999] OverviewWriter: Billie Beckett
Producer: Vin Peters, Avil Hartman, and Brandon Caulfield
Length: 3:30
Track: 13
The final and title track of "Rome" finds Reported Failure experimenting with a folk-rock side of them that no one has seen before. The band collaborated with Brandon Caulfield as a producer and guest vocalist to create a fiery acoustic track destined for airwave success. Lyrically the song concludes the album with Beckett applying his "Enlightenment" to his everyday life. The song is Reported Failure's "Call to action". The folk influences and Caulfield's vocals make it one of the most memorable tracks on the album. It was recorded in May 2013 at Sundlaugin Studios in Iceland. As well as Brandon Caulfield, Vin Peters and Avil Hartman also worked as producers. Lyrics are written by Billie Beckett. Creating "Rome"Writing"We had to end big right?" says a joking Billie Beckett. Looking at the band's past albums, he is right. THe band always goes big for the last song. In this case Billie Beckett started with fury. "Think what you will of the album but overall it is about discoveries but mostly personal ones. For the last song we knew we wanted to take those discoveries and revelations and see how they could actually apply in the world." says Beckett. "This started with me just thinking about all that was wrong with the world and all that I wanted in the world. So these thoughts that were happening really at the end of the writing process for this album are what drove the title track."
From there Beckett spent a lot of time trying to write the song. "I dont think you can write great lyrics in a studio. Or at least I cant." he says. The result was breaks from the studio. the frontman insisted on a few breaks from Sundlaugin to just wander around the countryside. "Iceland is really beautiful. I think absolutely that recording there influenced the sound of the second half of the album. And in some cases it influenced the lyrics too." Finally for a couple of days while wandering around Iceland beckett had a hook he was satisfied with, and the rest of the song began coming from there.
"Really it was easy once I started with something I could work with." says Beckett. "I had been through my own enlightenment, as we'll call it. So really I just had to ask myself how that felt. The whole album is leading up to that enlightenment but this song gets to reflect upon it and say 'what now'. So part of everything was that I resolved that, contrary to popular belief, life is pretty great. Or at least has the potential to be great. but it also has the potential to be terrible. Part of our purpose in this life is to uphold it and make it as great as can be so thats where the idea of Rome came in because it is the most glorified bit of ancient culture yet it fell. Thats where this song comes from." Recording"This song feels like a call to action." says guitarist Vin Peters. "Because of that we knew it had to sound nothing like the rest of the album. We want fans to love the entire album. But we care a little bit less if they love this song. I love this song and we all do. But we mostly care that they remember this song. That whether they enjoy it or not it sticks with them." Part of how Reported Failure did this was by bringing in someone new to work on the song: Brandon Caulfield. The singer-songwriter superstar hadn't worked with Reported Failure before. But quickly they hit it off. "Before we went over to Sundlaugin we just met up with Brandon and had some drinks and talked. By the end of the night we all agreed that we would absolutely like to work with him. He's full of ideas and could bring us to a place musically that we've never been to before."
With this in mind, when Reported Failure began wrapping up the final songs of the album in Iceland, they decided that for the title track they wanted Caulfield. Within days he was in the studio. "He brought out the more folky acoustic side of us instead of I guess the emo acoustic side of us." says bassist Matt Collins. Within a day of recording he had Vin Peters, one of rocks biggest guitarists trying to shred on a banjo. Caulfield ended up creating the arrangement for the song. After a couple of demos the band was ready to record.
Matt and Robert were first laying down tracks for drums and bass. Then came the acoustic guitar which allowed Vin to play a very hard, fast acoustic track. A professional was brought in to record the banjo for the song. Then finally Beckett and Caulfield started working on the vocals. "I just kind of looked over at Brandon who we didnt really know whether he was just going to produce or not and I just said 'Do you want to sing?'" says Billie Beckett. From there the song took shape with Billie and Brandon harmonizing or switching off vocals. Eventually they found which parts made sense for each of them to sing with Billie singing the more aggressive parts and Brandon singing the softer parts with them both singing the end. Finished ProductWith the spitting, snarling sound of harsh acoustic guitar the song begins. Thundering bass and drums over the sparks of a banjo join in to the folk-rock storm of powerful, acoustic noise. Beckett's voice comes in like fire spewing a hot rage of malcontent over the aggressive musical backdrop. As the music fades to calm, cool, sustained chords even joined by a piano, Brandon Caulfield begins singing much more softly as the ice to Beckett's fire. In this way the song switches again with Beckett screaming and shouting in the raucous downpour, then Caulfield's composed vocals over the soothing background. Finally they both sing. with the instruments picking up after Caulfield's vocals. The last lines are repeated with both singers harmonizing over the louder arrangement.
[Billie]
This whole world's bound to raise up in arms
There's bread and a circus for every man alive
There's a white supremacist raising his cross
There's tyrant firing missles in the air
There's a plain for my manifested destiny
A river to ride to pollute the sea
There's a priest to put his hand down my pants
A genocide for everyone I know
[Brandon]
But I bend down to face the land and the sea
Prey to god he keeps it safe for me
I've been through dark, icy hell
So save my soul and keep me well
[Billie]
In this world material backstabbing greed
In the world of hate and short-term memories
I lye in the dirt with the dust in my face
Singing Jesus Christ come save me now!
He screams Billie Beckett you know you live in Rome
So save the republic and save yourself if you know how
Build a temple so mighty and high
Help your children and wife help them touch the sky
[Brandon]
I lay down in the grass
Love, this is heavenly at last
I'm not a pariah
Not a victim not a skull
I'm a man that's all I know
Here in Rome
We can be the greatest race
Build a church, a mosque a temple and crush the caste
[Billie and Brandon]
I will build a brand new day!
make a home for all my children to play
Sing hallelujah we've made it here at last
So we can make Rome anew from the past
Sounds Like
Reported Failure is:
Billie Beckett - Vocals
Matthew Collins - Bass
Robert Edwards - Drums
Vincent Peters - Guitar
PICK UP YOUR COPY OF ROME TODAY Edited by user 08 August 2013 05:50:04(UTC)
| Reason: Not specified |
 I might give Satan a swirly |
 8 users thanked Osprey037[Reported Failure] for this useful post.
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