ARTIST COMMENT:
1. Why did you select this song as your single?
It is honest and soulful rock-n- roll. Represents the musical and lyrical styling of our band . it’s actually a very simple standard blues progression, but the nuances that guitarist tim hadley and keyboard player fred delu have created make this composition sound uniquely nhb.
2. What was the writing process like for this song?
Though most listeners will assume that it is a typical boy/girl love gone bad story. The lyrics are actually about a long time close friend of mine(since childhood) who has been a taker for way too many years. I finally got sick of his shit ( l. o. l.) and decided that I needed to remove myself from the friendship. I have this terrible personality flaw of thinking that I can rescue people from themselves, uggggg. Well anyhow , that’s what inspired the lyrics(see below). The music was written by our rhythm guitarist jimmy “mac” Mccullough (who actually plays the solo on this track) . he was screwing around one day on a cool “flamenco “ chord progression that caught my attention. Together we had the basic arrangement and rough lyrical content completed in about an hour. We call that perfect timing and creative magic in the music biz …..ha,ha
3. What does this song mean to the band?
Funny you ask that , it’s our primary sound check song. Our crew loves the way the instrumentation is layered so they always want us to start sound check with this tune. Ironically it was a filler on our recent album ( side one) but because of our live shows ( where we add a cool sax solo, that is not on the studio version) the tune has also become an audience favorite. It would have to say that drag me down low represents exactly where the band is today . cool groove, interesting arrangement, strong drums/bass performance, with a little icing on top !
4. Explain how this song relates to the rest of the Lp.
The Lp tells the stories of the human condition/relationships/friendships- the ups and downs. Drag Me Down Low uses a bluesy rock genre to express the pain of “getting hit by a freight train in a tunnel of love.”
5. Explain the album concept.
Unfortunately, I really didn’t have much of a concept in mind except to call it “side one” because I felt like it was incomplete. The other important factor was that we recorded the album live in the studio; bring in the band, mic it up and play. Over the past few years the band had gone through a bunch of changes and that was painfully evident in our original music. In other words we were all over the place stylistically. It wasn’t until early 2011 that the lineup was solid ( same as it is today) and we started to mesh as a unit with our own sound. I would say that this band is part soul ( Motown ) and part rock-n-roll ( seger, springsteen) . we are already moving forward with recording side 2 which will certainly have a consistent flavor
