Our new song Spec, Virginia, has left the forge and it’s complete. We’ve been playing this song all over the DMV this past summer, and it’s about time release it to a broader audience. The song is available below:
Structure & Lyrics
Here’s the song’s lyrics:
| Verse 1 | Oh Analien I’ve propositioned you this last time. Cause oh I’ve got my dreams. This iron working man has seen your light. And I swear I’ll forge for you a better life |
| Verse 2 | oh it’s you I see My complications clear when you’re around. but oh I’m not afraid to bleed. These years of work have proved I’ll tough it out. I swear my dear I wont let us down. |
| Verse 3 | Oh Analien time will heal this empty mountain town. I know it’s hard to see. I’ll beat this bottle and turn my life around. I swear my dear I wont let us down. |
| Bridge | oooooo I swear to you I won’t let you down. |
| Post Bridge | Oh Analien I swear to you I won’t let you down. |
Meaning & Development
The song was inspired by DCist’s series about Abandoned States in the DC area, the Spec, VA one in particular. Spec was an old mining town before the Great Depression hit. And when I say small, it might be better to refer to it as a village or even a hamlet. DCist does a great job describing the town, so we’ll let them explain.
Spec, Virginia is a town even smaller than it sounds. If I’d have blinked, I’d have missed it. Its fifteen or so residents are tucked away in the Blue Ridge mountains, four hours or so southwest of D.C. It’s a handful of mobile homes and trailers, a gurgling creek and the occasional lumbering freight train providing its bucolic soundtrack.
The song was written about a fictional iron worker striving to make a living right around the time of the mine’s inevitable demise. The lyrics are sung from the perspective of the worker who is trying to win the heart of one, Analien. Underneath the obvious pleading of the iron worker lies a dark undertone of hardship that was faced by all of the workers upon the depletion of the mine. Through his hard work and infatuation with Analien, the iron worker has decided to put an end to his apparent alcoholism and depression to win her over.
In terms of development, we’ve begun to embrace the folksiness. Much like our most recent song You and Me, this song began as a guitar riff and melody recorded onto Kenny’s phone. It grew and grew, especially as we added vocal harmonies, until we arrived at today’s version. An interesting thing about this song is that there is no chorus – the verses just keep chugging along. Most people don’t notice, but some have commented on the abnormal song structure.
Recording
We are really not going to comment on the recording process. We recently grabbed iMovie, took some footage of the whole process, and then cut it all together. Therefore, there’s a video to come describing the whole recording process so stay tuned!
Video
We drove 3.5 hours southwest to Spec, VA to actually film a music video. We had no idea what the hell we were doing, but it all kinda worked out. We really don’t know anything about making a video, but the next time we at least know how important it is to keep the camera still! When we arrived, we were already fighting daylight, so we had to do all the filming in 2 hours. We then cut up the footage on our iPad via iMovie and this is what popped out!
