Reverse

Album: SomeKindaWonderful (2014)
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Songfacts®:

  • SomeKindaWonderful's debut single came together after Jordy Towers left Los Angeles for the Midwest to regroup after a failed record deal left him despondent and ready for a drastic change. A week after making the move, the vocalist found himself at a bar in Olmsted Falls, Ohio, where he ran into locals, drummer Ben Schigel and guitarist Matt Gibson, who were casually jamming. "I guess they were hammered," Towers laughed to Radio.com. "They were playing this melody, and I go to the back like, 'What is that? That's so fresh.'"

    "I started singing a melody to it, and we were all kind of looking at each other," he continued." It was like, 'Let's go record. Do you know a studio out here?'"

    It happened that Schigel did own one. "We went back to the studio, and about four hours later, we had 'Reverse,'" Towers said. "It was our first song and we just kind of went from there. It sounds like bulls--t, but it's true."
  • The song is a true story about a previous relationship that Towers had but the tale is recounted in reverse. "If I were to write a song about it in a normal forum, it would be boring," he explained to Artist Direct. "That's not how I do things. I usually write things in double entendre. In this case, I want to tell a specific story, but I don't want to tell it normally. I don't write anything conventionally. I was like, 'You know what? I'm going to write it backwards.' The beginning of the song is actually the end of the story. She hung the phone up then said, 'F--k you, it's over.'"
  • As to why he tells the story in reverse Towers explained: "It could mean I'm over the relationship, or it could mean I'd do it again differently. That's the double entendre. It leaves it up to the listener."

    "Ninety percent of art is perception," he continued. "It's about the way people perceive things. In films, I love how they don't give you the end. You have to figure it out yourself. There are movies where things get suspenseful. You know someone is being killed behind the wall, but you don't see it. You hear the sound. They leave it up to you to put your own visual in there. That's sort of what the song is."

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