Medieval Warfare

Album: Suicide Squad: The Album (2016)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • Recorded for the comic book flick Suicide Squad, this song finds Grimes switching between soft and sweet verses ("Baby I've been looking for a diamond") and a sneering, taunting hook ("Are you mad? Are you ugly? Can you kill someone with your hands?").
  • Following the song's premiere on Zane Lowe's Beats 1 show, Grimes told the DJ she was "weeping" when she first got the call about putting a track together. "I was very, very, very stoked" she said. The Canadian musician added that she watched the trailer 20 to 30 times before composing the song.

    Grimes felt a huge a huge pressure to create something great for the film that would fit somewhere in the void between "weird" and "normal." "I made the end more weird and the beginning more normal," she said.
  • Back in June 2016, Grimes told Song Exploder that Harley Quinn, a member of the eponymous antihero team, was a key inspiration for her Art Angels track "Kill V. Maim," so her inclusion in the Suicide Squad soundtrack is very much legit.
  • The song was an old demo that Grimes reworked. She told Zane Lowe: "I just tailored it lyrically and sonically a bit more to what I thought they would want for the movie during one of my weeks off."

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Incongruent Opening Acts

Incongruent Opening ActsSong Writing

Here's what happens when an opening act is really out of place with the headliner, like when Beastie Boys opened for Madonna.

Jethro Tull

Jethro TullFact or Fiction

Stage urinals, flute devices, and the real Aqualung in this Fact or Fiction.

What Musicians Are Related to Other Musicians?

What Musicians Are Related to Other Musicians?Song Writing

A big list of musical marriages and family relations ranging from the simple to the truly dysfunctional.

Melanie

MelanieSongwriter Interviews

The singer-songwriter Melanie talks about her spiritual awakening at Woodstock, "Brand New Key," and why songwriting is an art, not a craft.

Thomas Dolby

Thomas DolbySongwriter Interviews

He wrote "She Blinded Me With Science" so he could direct a video about a home for deranged scientists.

The Punk Photography of Chris Stein

The Punk Photography of Chris SteinSong Writing

Chris Stein of Blondie shares photos and stories from his book about the New York City punk scene.