WORK OF ART
WORK OF ART guitarist Robert Sall worked out a track x track comment for the forthcoming album "Art Work" to be released on Frontiers Records on February 22nd 2008. Enjoy the read:
Why Do I?
The obvious song to open our album with. This was one of the first tracks I wrote when we reformed our band in 2002. To me, it kind of sums up everything I like about this style of music. At the time I hadn't been writing or playing this type of music for a while so I wasn't sure if I still could do it or if it was such a good idea to "go back" to doing WOA again. As soon as I started to write however, the music just kept flowing and thought to myself "there's no way I'm not going to do this, these songs HAS to be written". So really, that's what the lyrics to this song are all about, me getting up early in the morning trying to write this song before heading off to school and my feelings in general about reforming our band.
Maria
I wrote this one right after we got signed by Frontiers. I was so excited and had so much inspiration so it was a really easy song to write. At the time we were getting a lot of attention on our My Space site from Spanish fans so, although the first name that rolled off the tip of my tongue while writing it was "Sophia", I changed it to the more Spanish sounding "Maria" as a tribute to all our Spanish female fans!
Camelia
This song has TOTO written all over it! It's one of my absolute favourite tracks on the record. I just love the groove and vibe. I remember writing the chorus first, thinking it wasn't anything special, but the melody kept popping up in my head so I decided to turn it into a complete song. Lyrically, it's the classic theme of boy meeting the most incredible girl that he know is way out of his league but he just can't help falling in love with her anyway. I think most of us guys have crossed paths with a "Camelia" at some point in our lives, I certainly have!
Her Only Lie
This is a very special song to us because it is the only song that has stayed with us from the beginning. When we started to work again in 2002, this song was really the blue print for the style we were going for. To me, it really has a Toto "Isolation" vibe to it. Lyrically, I remember that this was the first and probably only time that I've written about an actual person. The girl in question is a female singer that Herman and Lars hooked me up with when we first met and became friends some 15 years ago!
Too Late
I started to write this song while working with Daniel Flores (Mind's Eye) on new material for Andreas Novak (also Mind's Eye). However, they got busy recording the new Mind's Eye album so I never had the chance to present it to them. When we started to work on "Artwork", I brushed it off, added some new sections and rearranged it a little bit to suit WOA.
Whenever U Sleep
I was watching David Bowie on "The Parkinson Show" late one night when I came up the verse for this song. In my head I, was really hearing David Bowie's deep "vibrato on every note" voice singing the melody, believe it or not! For the bridge, in my mind, Peter Gabriel was providing the vocals. However, it took me some time to find the right chorus for this song. I wrote a least 3 or 4 versions before I and rest of the guys were satisfied.
For the lyrics, I wanted to write something that went with the mood of song rather than have an obvious meaning or story but it is kind of inspired by the "Beauty and Beast" theme and maybe even more by Sidney Sheldon's "If Tomorrow Comes".
Once In a Lifetime
Lars came up with this beautiful ballad while we recorded the album. We knew we had to have a least one big ballad on the record but I couldn't come up with any ideas, so luckily Lars blessed us with this song. For me it's one of the highlights of the album and it shows what a great songwriter Lars really is when he put his mind to it.
Peace of mind
The working title for this song was "Pieces" because it has so many different sections. For this style of music, I try to keep my songwriting direct and "to the point" but this song just kept calling for a new sections. I really dig the result though and I think it's a great up tempo, yet melodic, rocker which kind of defines the "typical" Work Of Art song. I also want to tip my hat off to my dear friend Henning Axelsson for playing the awesome keyboard solo!
Lost Without Your Love
This one almost didn't make it to the album but I'm really glad that it did. We were working on this other song that really didn't work out so very late in the recording process, we decided to give this one a shoot. I wrote it by the same time I wrote "Why Do I?" but we kind of forgot about it until we ran out of songs so luckily it ended up on album. I remember finishing the lyrics literally hours before the vocals was recorded.
Like No Other
Again, Lars came up with this cool song while we were recording our album. I think it adds a really nice flavour to the album. We all love and have been playing a lot of funk music so it was nice to have something slightly more "groovy" on the record.
Cover Me
I wrote this song right before we got signed. At the time I was heavily into Joe Lynn Turner so I was really hearing his voice in my head while writing it. Although it wasn't really intended for WOA in first place, the rest of the guys really liked it so we decided recorded it. A lot of people have been asking us about this song sounding a bit more modern and if that was intentional. The idea behind this song was to make it rely more on guitars, rather than keyboards, to add a little heavier element to our record. It was the variation we were after rather than having a "modern sounding" song on our record. The lyrics speak for themselves!
One Hour
I think this song is a really good closer to our album. Musically, it's the result of me toying around with one of my favourite keyboard sounds. I think the song itself is a little more dramatic than the other songs and I really enjoy that. I hope to write more of these songs in the future. Lyrically, it was inspired by the high school shootings in Virginia last year.