i wrote this back in 2018 during my junior year of high school, at a time i was really struggling with learning to process and manage my emotions. i had gotten in a fight with a dear friend and, once i calmed down, i realized i hold a strong capacity to say hurtful things and lash out at the ones i love. writing this was my way of coming to terms with the dark side of myself and finally learning to be a more gentle person. while i love the original version, for its rawness and innocence, i have always had an urge to rework it and make it better. so, here it is. from 2018 to 2024, this song has always had a special place in my heart. (not sure if I'm gonna ever release this version, as i never did with the original.) Peace n luv y'all ❤︎ - akkiva * * * Check Out My Links ⇨ https://linktr.ee/knixco ⇦more

Grip - a song about a power struggle and the inevitable transfer of power from the old to the new.more

Built This Way is a dark fantasy introspective, dealing with feelings of uncontrollable malice that force actions without remorse and conceptually was written from the point of view of a serial killer. I know, right? We started this one as a joke and from there it blossomed into a rhythmically bouncy, swinging walk through the mind of a dangerous, narcissistic and callous psychopath. It's fun! Phil came up with the structure, playing minor chords in a 6/8 swing, switching to major chords to lift us up, and then dropping us back down to the verse. It was a cool sort of walking feel with a fun scariness to it that, before it even had words, we knew was dark. So we made it dark. Lyrically I tried to keep this one pretty much on the nose and leaned in to a murderer's perspective as much as possible with the bridge having him accomplish his goal and move on to strike another day, all peppered with influences from my own life. That's how we wrote, most of the time, with me writing the first lyrics because it was my phone that I was writing everything on, so it was with me, and I always had the newest version that I just edited. I'm pointing this out because this caused me to be the one to really know the lyrics, and be able to sing, for the longest time in our writing. For most of our writing he'd build the house and I'd decorate. We put a light, mellow bridge near the end to give a sense of peace, tonally, while lyrically being completely nonchalant about its intense evil. Production went quickly on this track in studio with everything coming together perfectly and this was the first song I considered finished, with it's disturbing yet strangely inviting tone, roiling around a sinister edge. Vocally I originally wanted to have layers of other voices singing at the same time, alluding to the voices in the head of the singer, but I completely forgot about it until just this moment. Huh. Too late now! This is the only song on the album in 6/8 time, which gives it a unique flavour transition to the more rock leaning part of the album. It's dark, it's kinda scary and it's fun.more