I like to think of "Mocking Love Out of Nothing At All" as an "anti-love song," coming from the perspective that love only ends in failure, tragedy, and despair, but also with a longing for a different outcome. It's a declaration to wipe your hands clean of any future involvement in romantic endeavors, but deep down, knowing that this hard stance is only temporary. "I can't commence to live with no risk to life and limb, but at present tense, I won't let my heart be stolen again." I like that closing line of the chorus, as it says: For now, I'm done, but I know I won't always feel this way. There's a little bit of hope in there.

The title of the song is a play on the Air Supply power ballad, "Making Love Out of Nothing At All." Air Supply only seemed to write songs that included the word "love" in the title. I wanted our song to be the antithesis to that...high energy, slightly tongue-in-cheek, but not a "joke song."

The music to "Mocking Love Out of Nothing At All" was written right around the time of the release of Gentlemen Rogues' debut EP, but the lyrics weren't finalized until much later. I wrote a few different versions of the lyrics before I really figured out what I wanted the song to say. Initially, the song was called "Thermal Wars." I'd had a conversation with a friend, and he was talking about how he and his wife were always "battling each other" with the thermostat - she liked the apartment warmer, and he liked it cooler. When she got her way, he was sweating his ass off, and when he got his way, she was a Popsicle. This couple got along swimmingly in every other regard, so I thought it was funny how something so trivial (temperature) would make one person legitimately aggravated with the other. The original pre-chorus lyric said, "So, this is what we call war?" Once I figured out what I wanted the song to be about, this lyric was changed to "Didn't your mama say there'd be days like this?" The final lyric is a paraphrased play on The Shirelles 1961 hit, "Mama Said." Lyrically speaking, this Shirelles' tune and "Mocking Love..." share a similar theme...at least that's my interpretation. I just thought it "worked." Still do.

The recording of the track was done very quickly, and with the exception of the vocals, it was done completely live, all in a room together. We recorded it with Kevin Butler, at Orb Studios, on the outskirts of Austin, TX. I think we recorded the song in three takes, if memory serves me correctly? Overall, we are happy with the way it turned out, and are proud of the song. It's fun, a little challenging to play live (in a good way), and is a good representation of what Gentlemen Rogues do as a band.