All Alone

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I have only 1 regret with this song.

One of my oldest and best friends Myles Ouziel has appeared on every album I’ve ever recorded in one capacity or another. He was even the bass player on our first album before marriage took priority. Myles always had a great sense of melody but it had been so long since we wrote together. I was honestly a little worried he may have lost it somewhere between “I do” & weekends at Bed Bath & Beyond. Coops and I met up with him at my place to just jam and see what happens. Immediately the distorted bass line started flowing and we all knew we had something special. Hand claps, swooping synths, driving guitars, four on the floor kicks – all alone had come to life!

Along with “staring at your phone”, this song came from the early batch of tunes. When we noticed our hardcore fans clapping along to the verses, we knew this one was going to stick. Since we were playing it early on, we had a chance to work out all of the kinks and it was ready when it was time to go into the studio. I remember when we went in to record it, everyone just killed it! I kept listening like something had to be wrong. How could it come together so fast?

The verses in the song are based on real people I knew… I only changed two of their names. The chorus explores a lot of thoughts I had been thinking about at the time. Loneliness is such a common feeling but when you realize that we all come from the same place, are made up of the same things, and ultimately are just fragments of the same universe… you realize loneliness is just a misunderstood bi-product of this incredible gift of self awareness. Even more importantly, someone may look or think differently from you but when you really break it down, the similarities of any of us far out number any differences we may notice and the driving force inside us all is exactly the same.

While we were wrapping up the album I emailed the famous astrophysicist Neil DeGrass Tyson who often talks about how we are all made up of stardust. We knew it was a long shot but we really wanted him to record an intro for the song. We sent him “All Alone” and a letter stating what we wanted to do. Two months later he actually replied himself saying he dug the tune but didn’t have time to record something unique for the track. He offered us to use any of his dialogue on YouTube for the album. We scrambled to find the right clip but time ran out… and that is my only regret with this song.

– Nathan

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