Johnny Buzzerio (courtesy of Party Smasher Inc)Last week, Giraffe Tongue Orchestra premiered the video for their song "Crucifixion." The black-and-white clip is filled with footage of riots and war zones, reflecting the emotion behind the song.
"It was a blend of what's going on in the world and what's going on in my own life, or how I perceive what's going on in my own life," frontman William DuVall tells ABC Radio of the lyrics on "Crucifixion." "It was sort of written from a standpoint of someone who feels under siege and is trying to sorta throw off the confines of whatever it is that's stepping down on 'em."
DuVall, who is the lead singer in Alice in Chains, wrote the lyrics and the vocal melody for "Crucifixion" to music that was already created by the rest of Giraffe Tongue Orchestra. Featuring members like Mastodon's Brent Hinds and Ben Weinman of The Dillinger Escape Plan, GTO is filled with musicians known for creating music with complex rhythms and unusual time signatures.
In writing vocals for "Crucifixion," DuVall remembers having to "find a way to ride over top of this rhythm" and "give the listener a bit of a life-raft to navigate through all the twists and turns that it takes musically."
Naturally, a song called "Crucifixion" will feature religious imagery, which DuVall has been attracted to ever since he starting writing music.
"Overall, it's just my own preoccupation with good and evil, good versus evil, or what we perceive as good and evil, and how relative that can be," DuVall says. "And how you can...if you keep going, you can get to a place where there isn't any morality at all."
"Crucifixion" appears on GTO’s debut album Broken Lines, which will be released September 23.
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