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"ARTWORK" - TRACK BY TRACK Written By Robert Säll
Why Do I? - The obvious song to open our
album with. This was one of the first tracks I wrote when we reformed our band
in 2002. To me, it kind of sums up everything I like about this style of music.
At the time I hadn't been writing or playing this type of music for a while so I
wasn't sure if I still could do it or if it was such a good idea to "go back" to
doing WOA again. As soon as I started to write however, the music just kept
flowing and thought to myself "there's no way I'm not going to do this, these
songs HAS to be written". So really, that's what the lyrics to this song are all
about, me getting up early in the morning trying to write this song before
heading off to school and my feelings in general about reforming our band.
Maria
- I wrote this one right after we got signed by Frontiers. I was so
excited and had so much inspiration so it was a really easy song to write. At
the time we were getting a lot of attention on our My Space site from Spanish
fans so, although the first name that rolled off the tip of my tongue while
writing it was "Sophia", I changed it to the more Spanish sounding "Maria" as a
tribute to all our Spanish female fans!
Camelia - This song has Toto written all
over it! It's one of my absolute favourite tracks on the record. I just love the
groove and vibe. I remember writing the chorus first, thinking it wasn't
anything special, but the melody kept popping up in my head so I decided to turn
it into a complete song. Lyrically, it's the classic theme of boy meeting the
most incredible girl that he know is way out of his league but he just can't
help falling in love with her anyway. I think most of us guys have crossed paths
with a "Camelia" at some point in our lives, I certainly have!
Her Only Lie - This is a very special
song to us because it is the only song that has stayed with us from the
beginning. When we started to work again in 2002, this song was really the blue
print for the style we were going for. To me, it really has a Toto "Isolation"
vibe to it. Lyrically, I remember that this was the first and probably only time
that I've written about an actual person. The girl in question is a female
singer that Herman and Lars hooked me up with when we first met and became
friends some 15 years ago!
Too Late - I started to write this song
while working with Daniel Flores (Mind's Eye) on new material for Andreas Novak
(also Mind's Eye). However, they got busy recording the new Mind's Eye album so
I never had the chance to present it to them. When we started to work on "Artwork",
I brushed it off, added some new sections and rearranged it a little bit to suit
WOA.
Whenever U Sleep - I was watching David
Bowie on "The Parkinson Show" late one night when I came up the verse for this
song. In my head I, was really hearing David Bowie's deep "vibrato on every note"
voice singing the melody, believe it or not! For the bridge, in my mind, Peter
Gabriel was providing the vocals. However, it took me some time to find the
right chorus for this song. I wrote a least 3 or 4 versions before I and rest of
the guys were satisfied. For the lyrics, I wanted to write something that went
with the mood of song rather than have an obvious meaning or story but it is
kind of inspired by the "Beauty and Beast" theme and maybe even more by Sidney
Sheldon's "If Tomorrow Comes".
Once In a Lifetime - Lars came up with
this beautiful ballad while we recorded the album. We knew we had to have a
least one big ballad on the record but I couldn't come up with any ideas, so
luckily Lars blessed us with this song. For me it's one of the highlights of the
album and it shows what a great songwriter Lars really is when he put his mind
to it.
Peace of Mind
- The working title for this song was "Pieces" because it has so many
different sections. For this style of music, I try to keep my songwriting direct
and "to the point" but this song just kept calling for a new sections. I really
dig the result though and I think it's a great up tempo, yet melodic, rocker
which kind of defines the "typical" Work Of Art song. I also want to tip my hat
off to my dear friend Henning Axelsson for playing the awesome keyboard solo!
Lost Without Your Love - This one almost
didn't make it to the album but I'm really glad that it did. We were working on
this other song that really didn't work out so very late in the recording
process, we decided to give this one a shoot. I wrote it by the same time I
wrote "Why Do I?" but we kind of forgot about it until we ran out of songs so
luckily it ended up on album. I remember finishing the lyrics literally hours
before the vocals was recorded.
Like No Other - Again, Lars came up with
this cool song while we were recording our album. I think it adds a really nice
flavour to the album. We all love and have been playing a lot of funk music so
it was nice to have something slightly more "groovy" on the record.
Cover Me
- I wrote this song right before we got signed. At the time I was heavily
into Joe Lynn Turner so I was really hearing his voice in my head while writing
it. Although it wasn't really intended for WOA in first place, the rest of the
guys really liked it so we decided recorded it. A lot of people have been asking
us about this song sounding a bit more modern and if that was intentional. The
idea behind this song was to make it rely more on guitars, rather than
keyboards, to add a little heavier element to our record. It was the variation
we were after rather than having a "modern sounding" song on our record. The
lyrics speak for themselves!
One Hour - I think this song is a really
good closer to our album. Musically, it's the result of me toying around with
one of my favourite keyboard sounds. I think the song itself is a little more
dramatic than the other songs and I really enjoy that. I hope to write more of
these songs in the future. Lyrically, it was inspired by the high school
shootings in Virginia last year. |