Cinema Sleep's single "The Response" was written as a rebuttal to a former band/band mate who (after Alex Asch and I left the band) had the new singer write multiple derogatory songs about us. It was actually laughable seeing the lyrics he had wrote about us because the new singer of the band came to every show before my departure with his father and sang along to every single word. He said himself that he "looked up to me as one of his favorite singers".

At the time we were working with a junior manager of a large management team who specialized working with metal bands. Our manager advised us to change our image, songwriting, and overall genre of music and gave us a choice to sound like one of the two highest grossing bands on their management. I at first went along with the orders and we wrote a few songs that were a bit heavier in nature. One of the songs I recall started out with a screamed "Is this what you wanted?" in defiance of his new orders.

Ever since I found out I could sing I wanted to be in a band so I followed orders up to a point. The real departure from the group came after they declined to play an AIDS awareness benefit for no pay. I had gone inside the high school where it was being held and met with all of the people who were excited to see us play. After getting the call saying that they didn't want to make the drive down, I quit the band with a heavy heart. The rest of the band went on to tour and I had to deal with the ridicule from friends who didn't understand why I quit such a successful group.

With the release of my old band's promotional photos it was clear that they had changed, and for the worse. All of them dressed in all black, with black swoop haircuts, and to top it all off, eyeliner. After being on tour for close to three weeks and playing music Alex "hated more than anything" he left mid tour to come home with two of the other members (Kevin Vincent and Ryan Meyers) to start a new band with me.

After a month or so of practices with no solid choice on what genre we wanted to aim for we went in to the studio to record a song as the new group. I had continued to write lyrics during my time off (close to 67 pages) and ended up choosing specific lines to form the song people know now as "The Response". I specifically chose certain lines as "comebacks" to the shots the former band had taken on me and my band mates, such as "With your two black eyes, it's hard to see.. You're just a ghost, you'll never haunt me" referencing their new make-up and "Never let your clothes speak louder than your voice." The two black eyes also can also represent people who are blinded by self-gain and hate.

I wanted to keep the lyrics vague enough to relate to anyone who was dealing with bully-type people in their lives; People who only take shots at your because they know you can't do anything about it. The fact of the matter is, these people never go anywhere in life unless they change their ways. We want people to listen to our music and to be empowered to do something positive with their lives and sometimes that means you have to stand up to your bullies and give them a "response" they won't forget. Thank you!