Gravity

Album: F.E.A.R. (2015)
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Songfacts®:

  • This tune finds singer Jacoby Shaddix spitting confessional rhymes in between vocals from Maria Brink of In This Moment. He explained the song's story during a live Google+ Hangout session: "There's a track called 'Gravity' that Jerry [Horton, guitar] was working on, and we all heard it, and we were just, like, 'This just sounds cool. It just sounds like the sound of us driving down this desert road,'" he said. "And it just sounded like the environment that we were in."

    "'Gravity' is about what are the things in the world that keep pulling you back to reality or back down to the ground or back down to earth or back down to who you really are," Shaddix continued. "And so that's a great track. And for me, that was just something really different. I was, like, Jerry wrote the song, and I started lyricizing on it, and I was, like, 'This song seems like it would be cool if I rapped on it.' Everybody was, kind of, 'Huh?! Really?' And then I did it. And I remember I was just getting really painfully honest about some of the dark moments in my life that I never spoke about. I think that that's when I really expose myself in the most vulnerable ways and step out of my comfort zone and really put myself out there, like, 'You guys are gonna know this about me now?' That's when I think the best art is created - when you're pulled the furthest out of your comfort zone. And that's why Papa Roach records are so diverse."
  • Shaddix's vivid rhymes finds him opening up about his relationship with wife, Kelly. "I lay it all out there," he said. "I talked to my wife about the song, and I told her I was going to talk about the darkness of our marriage in a deep sense. This was a tool of strength to show how we made it through those trials and tribulations and how we've both grown into stronger, better people that still know how to love each other. She loves the song."
  • In our interview with Shaddix, he said that this was his most personal song on the album, and that he hopes any couples going through a similar struggle will know that they have a chance to make it through as long as they love each other.
  • Maria Brink also co-stars in the video with Jacoby Shaddix. The clip was directed by Ezio Lucido, who also shot the clip for Papa Roach's "Before I Die" from their 2012 album The Connection and filmed at in Vacaville, California's Theatre DeVille.

    There are moments in the promo that demonstrate actual gravity. "We wanted to represent outer space but not so literally, and I think we accomplished that," Lucido told Billboard magazine. "The 150 hanging bulbs in Theatre DeVille with the band's hanging backdrop was the perfect recipe, I think."

    "We also wanted to be random at times in the video, with portrait-style imagery... Like with the heart in Jacoby's hand at the end. I think that complemented some of the mystery in the video well," the director continued. "Even though we have these two identical rooms where one is flipped and charred, we didn't overdo the reveal of that, so the viewer can sort of define things for themselves."

Comments: 1

  • Kearstin from PennsylvaniaI love this song I listen to it everyday
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