Gave Up
By orangedrink on September 6, 2020 11:19 pm
This is a sequel to a song from 2005 called "Give Up". "Give Up" is about suicidal ideation because you're gay. "Gave Up" is about everyone wishing you killed yourself because you're gay. Lyrics also reminded me of some of the racist dialogue I've been hearing recently. "Try to pull a fast one, try and ask the last one" is kind of like, "we lynched the last person that caused us trouble". Sometimes I get frustrated and want to give up music, other times I'm absolutely impressed that I've never given up. KEEP MAKING MUSIC Y'ALL!
I wrote this in 45 minutes and it was crazy to write lyrics as fast as I could. The guitar chords sounded kind of boring, the drum beat basic, but when I sung the lyrics, it somehow magically came together. I watched a drum lesson from Jessica Burdeaux about being a well-rounded drummer, and she said you have to push yourself out of your comfort zone, and don't be afraid of not being perfect. I have a "drumming tempo phobia" - when songs are too fast, I just totally unravel and get really upset. I had to loop some sections, but I pushed myself to play faster than I am comfortable. I am really proud of the end section, because I thought it was a four beat loop, but it's actually maybe 8x more of nice drumming!
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2 just came out, and as an avid video gamer and skateboarder, it's like my favorite thing ever. I tried to write a skate punk song that'd be welcome in the game. Maybe one day someone will put this song in a skate video! The cassette sample is from a random tape from 2008 that I pulled out of a box. I edited it to make it sound like we were laughing about what was just said - worked really well that way 
April 31st! I think the bass might be too loud and the echoey vocal at the end might be too quiet. I spent too much time mixing and mastering, trying to learn new software, and everything sounded the same at the end.
LYRICS:
no one understands you
nobody can stand you
we wonder why you never gave up
we don’t want to hear you
everybody fears you
shoulda done it sooner - gave up
i think that you’ve been lied to
cause all of us despise you
and we think you shoulda gave up
look at it through my eyes
you should just apologize
we’d love it if you just gave up
help us help you help us, come on.
we’re not in the wrong here
you don’t belong here
we’re not the ones that gave up
we’re trying to help
and a lot of us felt
it’d be better for you if you gave up
help us understand
go along with the plan
we’d be quiet if you gave up
try and pull a fast one?
try and ask the last one
shoulda woulda coulda gave up
help us help you help us, come on!
Audio works licensed by author under:
CC Attribution Noncommercial Share Alike (BY-NC-SA)
