Believe The Squalor

Album: If I Kill This Thing We're All Going To Eat For A Week (2015)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • Washington State native Nate Mendel is best known for being Foo Fighters bass player. His first solo project under the Lieutenant moniker, was something that Mendel initially had little confidence in. It was Head and the Heart's Josiah Johnson that gave him the necessary assurance. "I've got a lot of respect for (Johnson) as a musician, and he said to me, 'I don't know what it is about this song. It just got stuck in my head and there's something compelling about it,' and he agreed to sing on it," Mendel explained to Billboard magazine. "At that point I was like, 'OK.' That was a stamp of approval that I needed to feel like I'd done something worthwhile."
  • Mendel told American Songwriter magazine this was probably the most difficult song to write for the album. "Going into the studio I pretty much had things mapped out for all the songs, second guitar parts, third guitar parts, BGV's, everything," he explained. "And that song, I had a suspicion it could be something good, but it only had a couple of parts and guitar line and vocal melodies. It wasn't really a song yet."

    "I went in to record it without realizing what the backstop was gonna be or what the backbone was," Mendel continued. "Luckily I had Paige Hamilton come in and play guitar and he added this beautiful guitar riff on top that kind of changed that song and turned into something great."

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Famous Singers' First Films

Famous Singers' First FilmsSong Writing

A look at the good (Diana Ross, Eminem), the bad (Madonna, Bob Dylan) and the peculiar (David Bowie, Michael Jackson) film debuts of superstar singers.

Billy Steinberg - "Like A Virgin"

Billy Steinberg - "Like A Virgin"They're Playing My Song

The first of Billy's five #1 hits was the song that propelled Madonna to stardom. You'd think that would get you a backstage pass, wouldn't you?

John Doe of X

John Doe of XSongwriter Interviews

With his X-wife Exene, John fronts the band X and writes their songs.

Gavin Rossdale On Lyric Inspirations and Bush's Album The Kingdom

Gavin Rossdale On Lyric Inspirations and Bush's Album The KingdomSongwriter Interviews

The Bush frontman on where he finds inspiration for lyrics, if his "machine head" is a guitar tuner, and the stories behind songs from the album The Kingdom.

Emmylou Harris

Emmylou HarrisSongwriter Interviews

She thinks of herself as a "song interpreter," but back in the '80s another country star convinced Emmylou to take a crack at songwriting.

Early Days of MTV

Early Days of MTVFact or Fiction

If you can recall the days when MTV played videos, you know that there are lots of stories to tell. See if you can spot the real ones.