Songfacts®:

• Based in Dallas, Texas, Rescue Signals was formed by Beau Tyler, who is the group's guitarist and lead singer. He told us: "The song came to me completely organically. It was probably written in about an hour, musically and lyrically. The music wasn't too different from many upbeat songs that I'd written around the time, but it was the lyrical content that was unique to me. I had been revisiting some of my earlier rock influences and the song 'Sullivan' by Caroline's Spine was really present in my mind. I tried and tried but I just couldn't help but borrow from the feel. Originally, I had the intent to write an elaborate lyric about the final thoughts of a WWII fighter pilot being shot down. I felt, however, that I was borrowing a little to much from the story line of 'Sullivan,' so I decided to simplify the subject matter and make the content more vague. In turn, the song became incredibly irreverent. Having grown up in the church, I was really hesitant to record the words but in the end I felt that I had said something I really wanted to say. The song isn't about not believing in God, as most people have assumed. It's simply about the hypothetical situation of 'what if we die... and there's nothing. Just the black. Just an emptiness while we wait for the people we've loved.' It definitely still has a post war sense of reflection in lines like 'So when the war was fought and won, there would be no folded flags laid at your feet.' But in the end, I'm glad I didn't change the lyrics. The guys in the band encouraged me to stick to my guns. They always make me braver than I am. For better or for worse. 'When I Still Believed,' in the beginning was written out of necessity, because I felt we needed more upbeat songs on the record. In the end it was a huge step for me because I made the conscious decisions to start saying what I wanted to say, regardless of the consequences."