Singled Out: KidsonFire

KidsonFire just released their new single and video for the track "Kids On Fire" and to celebrate we asked Danny Smith (The Last Vegas) to tell us about the song. Here is the story:

First of all let me just tell you the song came before the band name. I've always been a fan of teenage angst movies and one in particular called Over the Edge. Its from 1979 and is about a group of kids who have nothing much to do except get in trouble because the parents are too concerned with keeping up with the Joneses to notice that the kids have no real outlet in the new suburb they live in. This film has always resonated with me my entire life and I've always wanted to write a song about it. I heard the video for Smells Like Teen Spirit was influenced by the same movie.

At the time I began writing what would become Kids on Fire I was really into Bob Ezrin and Alice Cooper and in particular Schools Out. I wanted to write something that I thought a 1976 Bob Ezrin would write. I wanted to write a modern rock anthem for the kids of today. It was the first time I tried to write a song with a producer's style in mind. In fact the demo version was actually called Ezrin.

I wrote the main riff and basic structure in Hawaii when I was visiting my sister. One of her very kind hippie friends left an acoustic guitar at her house for me to jam on while I was there. The music came rather quickly, but it eventually took about two years to finish the song completely because of the lyrics and vocal melodies. I was obsessed with finding lyrics that would give the cynical, creepy, and defiant feeling I felt when listening to Schools Out or Another Brick in the Wall. The title and chorus which were written last came from a PBS doc I saw about volcanoes and tectonic plates called Planet on Fire.

The song was initially written for my other band The Last Vegas, but the song apparently didn't resonate too well with a couple of the members and our producer at the time. So I took the song and started KidsonFire. It was the other members of KidsonFire that wanted to name the band after the song. Parts of the video were actually recorded in my old elementary school which is now a haunted house.

Kids on Fire is by no means a cerebrally challenging song. Its intentionally tribal and immature, but it does have a slight social message to the adults and parents who are running this world��. F Y O U!!!

Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen for yourself as you watch the video here and learn more about their debut album right here!

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