Singled Out: Granny 4 Barrel's Freak Flag

The recording of our full length album was almost complete and Jesse James Dupree president of Mighty Loud Records suggested that I try to add at least one more song to the record. I flew into Atlanta to do some gorilla style song writing� I only had three days to get the song written. Before I left for Atlanta I started digging around in my music vault for song ideas. There was this one guitar riff that had been on my mind on and off for the last 15 years� Something that was written at a band rehearsal years ago. It was nothing more than a little piece of a guitar riff and the groove. ... but it was cool and showed promise, I always wanted to see it become a song but until now it never did. Before I left I recorded that idea on my voice memo on my phone� I sent it over to the producer Jeff Tomei and we framed up a rough song idea via the internet he then sent this rough idea to our co-writers Johnny Blade and Roman Glick

I generally like to take my time when I'm writing a song and let creative ideas come to me naturally in their own way so this was a bit uncomfortable trying to cram it all into three days. The first day back at the studio in Atlanta we really honed in on the riff and the song structure. We were really pleased at the way that the structure came together so quickly. The song had a great groove and it was really heavy. That was the easy part, the next part and my least favorite are the lyrics. It's usually very easy to come up with one or two cool lines, and if i have a strong lyrical concept that always helps. I just kept thinking that since the music was heavy the lyrics also needed to support that, but I was stuck not even knowing the direction I was headed.

As I sat there in my hotel room trying to be creative Johnny Blade texted me and suggested that I stay away from the typical clich� metal concepts and that I try something with more broad appeal. I started thinking about pop-culture references, the social climate and my alter ego character Granny and what she represents. As I scrolled through the urban dictionary the term "Freak Flag" jumped out at me! That was it! It's summarized everything that I was thinking about and it was a topic I knew that everyone could relate to� Being true to yourself and not being afraid to let go of your inhibitions. As quickly as that happened, the rest of the words dropped into place almost stream of consciousness.

That is rare for me but when it happens, it is incredible! The rest of that evening until about 4 AM I fine-tuned and tweaked those lyrics.

When I got back to the studio the next day I almost couldn't contain myself to show these guys what I had come up with. I immediately went into the vocal booth and started singing these words. When I came out those guys were looking at me and saying WTF!? Wow! That's it ...you're I nailed it!!

Boom! There it was just like that! Freak Flag!! Sometimes being under pressure is a good thing� Sometimes forcing the creative makes a person more creative! In this case for me, it did! I like to compare it to mining for gold or diamonds. Sometimes the treasure falls out on the ground in front of you and sometimes you have to go deep and dig it out! But just know that the treasure is always there you just have to discover it!