Singled Out: Prong's Divide And Conquer

We have a very special Singled Out from Prong. The rock icons released their brand new album "Zero Days" today and to celebrate we asked Tommy Victor to tell us about the song "Divide And Conquer". Here is the story:

In planning to produce a full length record , I've learned to "write for the garbage can" . Between Prong's co producer Chris Collier and myself we churn out quite a lot of riffs in preproduction. He'll send me a batch of ideas and I'll send him mine for him to get familiar with. A lot, I mean a lot get eliminated right off the bat. Then I'll start filling in the blanks on an idea that I like from him. I'll start figuring out a few potential vocal melodies over his submission and my new additions. I'll do the same on my complete ideas, continually working on them until later down the line when he gives me his opinions and comments. Some ideas I even have to come up with several vocal melodies and approaches to a musically part. A decision will be made to see what's best. So again , I'll review his ideas and then if I like one I'll pursue other parts and try to work on making a song out of it.

We got to a point where we had a good batch of song ideas for the new "Zero Days" album. But I started scratching my head asking "What do we need now?". I expressed that to him. I think he went and listened to our "Rude Awakening" record, in order to get a vibe for that period of Prong. While on the road with Prong opening for Obituary and Exodus in Europe Chris emailed me an idea; the main riff and chorus idea for " Divide And Conquer". I guess since we were out with these very hard bands I was hoping he would send me something a little more brutal or heavy for I was initially questioning it. I wasn't going to pan the idea. He was very excited about it. I thought that maybe when I got some different vocal melodies rolling and lyric together I would see if it was a keeper. It definitely took awhile. When I got off tour I got cracking on this idea that Chris called "Division". I had an alternate lyrics and verse melody written for this one as well like some of the others. But that of course got trashed. I had a little different take on the chorus than Chris did. There was just something about the vocal register that was annoying me silly. I also messed with the guitar parts a bit, moving away from block chords to a more open approach and making some power chords more dissonant but still accessible .I just needed to give the idea a bunch of love and then I finally got as confident in the song as Chris always was. Chris totally approved of my changes thankfully! Good call by Chris on that one. We love these collaborative successes!

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

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