UTG TRACK-BY-TRACK: Instead of Sleeping – ‘Young Lungs’

May 19th, 2014

Matthew Leimkuehler

In wake of the May 22 release of their brand new LP, Instead of Sleeping have teamed up with Under The Gun to bring you an exclusive track-by-track of Young Lungs. The record, which can be streamed following the jump, is the band’s third LP and experience proves it to be a dose of mature and clean indie rock. Songs such as “Merlot” are translucent and laid back, while numbers like the opener “Volatile,” and “The Ones,” pack more of a punch with exploding choruses.

Click “Read More” to stream the record, which was produced by Marc McClusky (Weezer, Bad Religion) and read an exclusive track-by-track breakdown of Young Lungs with singer Shaun Sweeney. Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

“Volatile”
“Volatile” is a song that describes an explosive relationship between two people who truly care about each other, but always find themselves at each other’s throats. This song embodies the phrase “love hate relationship,” and illustrates just how fine that line in between really is.

While writing the lyrics for this song, I was trying to write about someone I wanted to be totally rid of. Somebody I truly wished that I never met. But as I kept writing, I found myself contradicting myself. By writing about this person, I found myself feeding my craving that I had for them: the calm as well as the chaos. People like that are the most dangerous, because no matter what line they cross they will always still mean something to you, and that’s what makes it both feel so beautiful as well as painful.

“Insatiable”
“Insatiable” is a song that describes a personal situation with a beautiful woman who can have whatever and whomever she wants. The big difference between her and every other beautiful woman is that she actually takes whoever and whatever she wants, whenever she wants, with total disregard to their feelings and her reputation. She has a thirst that is unquenchable. She will never be satisfied with you or anything you can give her, and you know it. But you keep letting her in.

“Merlot”
“Merlot” is a very personal song for me. It was written after we got home from Chicago, and I was having crippling writers block. With my head in my hands and a pen lying on a blank piece of paper, there was a knock at my door. The woman I love was at my door with a bottle of merlot and two glasses to cheer me up. We didn’t have to go out. We put some music on, poured some drinks, and she reminded me why I love music even when it can torture me. The next morning I sprawled the words out about how we danced alone in my apartment, laughing and singing the words the best we could to The 1975. While my notebook laid there on the table untouched, we were writing the night away.

“The Ones”
This is a song that has an old story behind it. New Years 2012 in New York City. Corey (drummer) had finished an entire bottle of Tanguay Gin to himself in a Chipotle bathroom, before returning to the pandemonium that is Times Square on New Years Eve. Woody (guitar/keys), who was sober, was trying to keep Corey under control. His efforts were all in vain when Corey sprinted for a police barricade and attempted to hop over it to get closer to the ball drop. When the police surrounded Corey, Woody found a bench to sit on and look away as though he didn’t know Corey.

Now nothing against Woody, but that moment stuck with me. If you were going to choose one of the two people to be in this situation, who would you be? Would you be the safe and cautious one? Or would you be the ones squeezing every drop out of life while you’re young and dumb? Would you choose to be “The Ones?”

?”Speak Into Me”
“Speak Into Me” was the second song that we wrote while working with Marc McClusky. After showing him a lot of our demos, we realized that we had a lot to learn and change about our writing process if we were going to reach our goals with this album. We went to the writing space to create a song using his input, while Marc was mixing “Volatile.” After spending the better part of a day writing in a closet, Marc came in to see how we were doing. We showed him the song, and he paid us the best compliment we could have asked for. “You’re about 80% there!” We loved it.

The more explicit explanation: We knew exactly what we wanted to write about after Shaun’s lyric “Because sitting still never felt so good.” We all sat down and said we want a very sexual song, all the while not getting too trashy. We all brainstormed our favorite parts about sex, without getting too graphic. It became a game that we all learned a lot about each other!

“Speak Into Me” is a self-explanatory song. It is a song about sex, but more importantly it is about everything intimate and beautiful surrounding it. Our goal was to write about everything that sex entails other than the actual act. The way two people communicate intimately without saying a word, the time and care that we put into making each other feel physical ecstasy, and the confidence it takes to perform. It’s not a trashy or slutty song, but it is a song that makes no apologies and doesn’t hide its meaning.

?”Tired Tigers”
“Tired Tigers” is a song about greed. You already have enough, but you love to think about getting more. Just the thought of the hunt makes you hungry. Comfort starts to feel more like a cage. You become obsessed with getting more. It consumes you, as you revert to more animal-like instincts.

“South Side Girls”
We have all seen her. That girl that you always seem to bump into when you’re out at the bars. You can tell that this is no coincidence that you keep bumping into each other. She just lives in these bars. This is her life. She is a party girl with no thought of what’s to cometomorrow and thrives off the attention she gets in these smoky little establishments. She’s looking for someone and nobody in particular at the same time. She doesn’t need to go to the bar with anyone because she’s just fine all on her own. She’s a loner, but she doesn’t want to go home alone.

?”Ammo”
“Ammo” was written as the result of a cataclysmic end to a relationship. The kind of end that you would do or say anything to make sure the other person as much as possible. The kind of end with no holds barred, throwing everything you can get your hands on. And I was on the end of the attack. I took it all. I let myself think that I was the problem. That I couldn’t do anything right. That all I do is hurt her… But after I had heard enough of it, after she literally unloaded everything she could on me as a result of years of fighting, I had a realization. I’m not as bad as she says I am. This person is desperate to hurt me. I cut that person out of my life forever. I wanted the listener to see the development in my own head by how drastically the song changes from beginning to end. First taking the blame, apologizing, then realizing the reality of the situation. She used everything she could, and in doing so she lost the battle, and the war.

http://youtu.be/AgFWdgF7cyE