Ten Foot Pole recently released their brand new album "Escalating Quickly" and to celebrate we asked lead vocalist Dennis Jagard to tell us about the song "Everything Dies". Here is the story:
I was emotionally distraught, expecting to lose my twenty year life partner, with our two children approaching their teens. Suddenly I had a bit of gallows humor epiphany. Even I felt all alone, facing an unbearable loss, it struck me that we are all doomed, that nothing and no one survives "ever after." I don't know why, but that thought brought me a bit of relief, especially when I started singing it in an upbeat tune. I guess I felt better about facing and accepting doom rather than trying to ignore or avoid it, because it was unavoidable in the long run, so I may as well enjoy the moment.
I started including the song in my sidewalk acoustic rehearsals, as I was touring as a sound engineer and I tried to sing during my lunch or dinner breaks, as a way to relieve stress and practice with a real audience. At first I thought the song was just a silly, quirky, tune that might fit into an independent film soundtrack, not worthy of being on an album. But I noticed that people really sang along with the easy to remember chorus lyrics "Dies... dies... dies... dies... dies... dies... dies..." And they seemed happy-maybe facing doom together, knowing nothing lasts forever, but enjoying the time we still have left, provided a bit of shared joy. Through the album writing process, somehow that song stayed in the top tier as the enthusiastic audience reactions kept it one of my favorites to sing in public.
As I was recording the song, some lyric adjustments got even sillier as the ridiculousness of the honest yet disturbing fact that everything and everyone would eventually die made me giggle. So the arc of the
song moved from serious doomed ideas like everlasting love, then faith, up to drooping eyelids and climaxed with the unthinkable-the loss of puppies! The more dramatic the idea, the more it made me giggle. And it seemed to affect other people too, because the song that started as a silly throwaway ended up being a favorite, a single and the first song on the album Escalating Quickly.
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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