The Gun

Album: Only This And Nothing More (2018)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This song about a gun crime came to David Nail a little at a time. He started with the chorus at which stage the lyrics were so far removed from his real-life experiences the singer had no idea what it would about.

    Once Nail and his backing band the Well Ravens were in the studio, he decided to dig a little deeper into the song. Nail recalled to Billboard that he "picked up a guitar, pulled that one out, and started to fumble with it." The singer's sound engineer, Andy Petroff, then pulled out his computer, and played a selection of the different sounds that he had programmed.

    "The next thing you know, the basis for what it became started," Nail continued. "I went in and did a vocal take, which I am almost positive is the vocal take you hear on the record."

    Petroff then took his soundscape to his studio back home and set out taking it to the next level. When he sent Nail a track of what he'd done a few days later, it blew the singer away. "It felt like a movie," he said "It sounded different than anything I'd ever done before."
  • This was the first time in around half a decade that Nail had come up with entirely fictional lyrics without any truth to his own life. "I think as a songwriter, that helped to inspire me that I could still do this," he said. "I don't have to write about the same old thing or subjects that people expect me to write about. I can be a songwriter who can write something out of thin air that is triggered by something I watched on TV. It's like creating a movie."

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Kristian Bush of Sugarland

Kristian Bush of SugarlandSongwriter Interviews

Kristian talks songwriting technique, like how the chorus should redefine the story, and how to write a song backwards.

Christmas Songs

Christmas SongsFact or Fiction

Rudolf, Bob Dylan and the Singing Dogs all show up in this Fact or Fiction for seasonal favorites.

Alan Merrill of The Arrows

Alan Merrill of The ArrowsSongwriter Interviews

In her days with The Runaways, Joan Jett saw The Arrows perform "I Love Rock And Roll," which Alan Merrill co-wrote - that story and much more from this glam rock pioneer.

Gary Numan

Gary NumanSongwriter Interviews

An Electronic music pioneer with Asperger's Syndrome. This could be interesting.

The Fratellis

The FratellisSongwriter Interviews

Jon Fratelli talks about the band's third album, and the five-year break leading up to it.

Director Wes Edwards ("Drunk on a Plane")

Director Wes Edwards ("Drunk on a Plane")Song Writing

Wes Edwards takes us behind the scenes of videos he shot for Jason Aldean, Dierks Bentley and Chase Bryant. The train was real - the airplane was not.