House Shows and How to Write Progressive Hardcore Songs

It is going to be a busy week for The Shafer Street Fugitive. I'll start by mentioning that our show last Tuesday was a huge success. The Smiling Skull was packed, and we got some great recordings as well.  Thanks to everyone who came out to support us.

The Shafer Street Fugitive will be playing a house show at 30 Franklin Ave Athens, OH 45701 this Saturday (the 23rd). We will most likely be playing about eight or nine of our originals, along with a few "Punk Goes Pop" style covers of songs like Fuck You by Cee-Lo Green, and Heartless by Kanye West. We have also confirmed that we will be playing house shows on March 9th and 16th as well. Addresses will be posted when I find out what they are.  If you aren't familiar with Progressive Hardcore, come on out and see what we're about. If you are familiar with the genre, come on out and start the mosh pit.

We are also re-recording our EP this week (I wasn't joking when I said it would be a busy week) with OU alum Adam Rich. The EP will include the first three songs we wrote together entitled 0079, Decepticon's Bastard Child (DBC), and Track Four.

Now that we've got the business part of this post out of the way, I will seize this opportunity to tell you about our creative process, and how we write our songs. Our first song, Track Four, was the hardest to write since we were still inexperienced at writing as a group. For this song, we started with some lyrics written by one of our singers, David Butler. The lyrics tell the story of an organized crime leader who has become completely corrupted by his power, and has lost all sense of humanity. In order to reflect his power, corruption, and evil, we wrote one of our heaviest riffs on guitar and used screamed vocals for the first part of the song. Throughout the song, our vocalists use a mixture of screaming and singing in order to appropriately convey a sense of rage or power (screamed lines), as well as emptiness and loss of humanity (sung lines). For most of the song, the guitar plays heavy power chords, hardcore breakdowns, and a riff inspired more by metalcore than progressive hardcore. Around 1min 45sec into the song, the tone of the song changes to become softer but the chord progression and instrumentation continue to convey feelings of hollowness. Eventually, the song comes to a climax for the final chorus (where the words go "I'm at the top..."). The cycle of violence and corruption continues, and it is confirmed that the mob boss has no remorse or empathy for other human beings.

"Track Four" by The Shafer Street Fugitive

You're nothing but a puppet

let me make this clear from the start

You don't breath unless my men tell you

I have a job for you

you'll get a call with instructions

Follow them and you will be on your way kid

fail and there'll be consequences most unfortunate

You'll never see me again

from now on you'll deal with my subordinates

Nothing gets traced to me

(I own you, you live and die by my hand)

Even if it takes severing every string

Follow every direction

don't you dare ask a question

I can tell from the look on your face

you know what I can have done to you

You've failed me for the first time

for the last time

No second chances in this line of business

I'm at the top under a magnifying glass

I can't get caught with your blood on my hands

Pick up my burner and I call my hitman

It never stops

these men who had wives before

(Men with families)

these men who had lives before

(Men who trusted me)

don't know what guilt feels like anymore

(They should have know their place)

You can check out the music video for Track Four here:

Track Four Music Video

(Note: the recording used in the video was done in a garage with amateur equipment since we did not have access to a studio at the time)