Born to Lose

Album: Reign Of Terror (2011)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • Sleigh Bells are a Brooklyn noise-pop duo comprising guitarist and producer Derek E. Miller and vocalist Alexis Krauss. This was released as the first promotional single from their second album Reign Of Terror. The song was made available for streaming online on December 15, 2011.
  • Krauss is chillingly dismissive of the subject of this track who has a death wish. ("Heard you say suicide in your sleep/Just get on with it/You were born to lose"). The song is one of several cuts on the album that feature dark lyrical content. However, when pressed by NME as to what lies behind them, Miller remained tight-lipped. "There's a theme," he said. "It's responding to events in my life. With (first album) Treats… I was in shock and denial when making it. I'm not interested in getting into the details of what was going on, but I listen to it now and again and I'm like. 'The person who made this was avoiding something.' That worked for the record, but I couldn't avoid it anymore. I don't like talking about my emotions; that's my way of dealing with it, because I'm frustrated and unable to communicate. That's why I write songs."
  • Miller was asked by Digital Spy the reasoning behind the album title. He replied: "I went through some really difficult stuff with my family - nothing that I'm really interested in getting into. It came out of a really, really, really hard time, a really difficult time in my life. It's probably a little more literal than people think. It's not just something that we thought sounded cool. It felt that like that was actually occurring on a personal level. I'm not going to call it my own Reign of Terror, but..."

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Carol Kaye

Carol KayeSongwriter Interviews

A top session musician, Carol played on hundreds of hits by The Beach Boys, The Monkees, Frank Sinatra and many others.

Corey Hart

Corey HartSongwriter Interviews

The Canadian superstar talks about his sudden rise to fame, and tells the stories behind his hits "Sunglasses At Night," "Boy In The Box" and "Never Surrender."

Lita Ford

Lita FordSongwriter Interviews

Lita talks about how they wrote songs in The Runaways, and how she feels about her biggest hit being written by somebody else.

Rosanne Cash

Rosanne CashSongwriter Interviews

Rosanne talks about the journey that inspired her songs on her album The River & the Thread, including a stop at the Tallahatchie Bridge.

Kevin Godley

Kevin GodleySongwriter Interviews

Kevin Godley talks about directing classic videos for The Police, U2 and Duran Duran, and discusses song and videos he made with 10cc and Godley & Creme.

Stand By Me: The Perfect Song-Movie Combination

Stand By Me: The Perfect Song-Movie CombinationSong Writing

In 1986, a Stephen King novella was made into a movie, with a classic song serving as title, soundtrack and tone.