Title: “To All Of The Names Written On The Inside Of My Arm”
By: Riot! In The Boulevard
From: Wild Young Things (2013)
Release Date: June 2, 2013
Length: 5:04
Format: CD Single, Digital Download, 7” Single, Weekly Airplay
Recorded: March/April 2013 - Capitol Studios, Los Angeles, California
Genre: Pop-Punk, Alternative Rock, Rock
Label: North Hill Records
Written: January 2013
Writer(s): Amy Meyer, Justin Mullen, Adam Benjamin
Producer(s): Riot! In The Boulevard, Avil Hartmann, Julian Morello

“To All Of The Names Written On The Inside Of My Arm” is a song written and recorded by the American pop-punk band ‘Riot! In The Boulevard’. Serving as the lead single from their upcoming fourth studio album ‘Wild Young Things’ it will be the eleventh single to be officially released by the popular rock group in little over three years since making their breakthrough into the music industry in 2011. The release of the song will mark the third single to be released from the band so far this year, the previous single titled ‘A Place Called Home (The Leaving Song)’ from their 2012 album ‘Crossroads’ peaked at number #6 on the singles chart and was marked as the final single to be released from their most recent studio album, which meant that it officially signalled the end of the promotional period for ‘Crossroads’ (2012) despite the band planning to tour in support of the aforementioned album throughout the majority of 2013.

Riot! In The Boulevard first publicly performed this new single in January at the opening night of their first ever headlining world tour, the ‘Crossroads World Tour’ and upon introducing the song onstage, lead singer ‘Amy Meyer’ talked about the songs autobiographical aspect, “This is a song written about one of the lowest times of my life, when you’re young, you can fall in love too easily and sometimes people can let you down, when that happens, it can feel like the greatest pain you could ever possibly feel. You’ve gotta realize though that life is one hell of a long journey, there is so much time for you to get things right that although in a moment of absolute sadness it can feel like nothing will ever get better, you need to realize that you have a whole life ahead of you. So don’t dwell on the sadness too much, nothing good can ever come of that. Just remember that we’re all just wild young things trying to find our way.” the term ‘Wild, Young, Things’ unbeknownst to the audience at that time and quite possibly the band eventually became the title that they settled on for their upcoming fourth studio album.

This will be the lead single from their next album ‘Wild, Young, Things’ and it was chosen by fans online as the next single following the release of four song previews, the first time that Riot! had given the fans the opportunity to select which song they’d prefer to see released as a single. The track was written at the very beginning of January by Amy Meyer, Justin Mullen and Adam Benjamin and the band recorded the song at Capitol Studios in Los Angeles, California during brief breaks from their tour in March and April. The production on the song was helmed by the entire band as well as Avil Hartmann, most known for his work with ‘Reported Failure’ and Julian Morello, who worked with the band previously when he hired them to headline ‘Field Trip Festival 2012’. The single will be released under record label ‘North Hill Records’ and it will be available in a variety of different formats including, CD Single, Digital Download, 7” Single and will also be made available on a range of different streaming websites that include, Spotify, Soundcloud, Last.fm and YouTube. The single will be officially released on Sunday, 2 June, 2013.

BACKGROUND

The song starts off with a repetitive four strike drum beat which sounds more prominent with the additional echo effect that can be heard alongside the instrument, the drum beat continues as the opening verse of the song starts to build, the three guitars can then be heard entering the song at around the twelve second mark, the lead guitar powers over the rhythm and bass guitars initially and it gives a strong music backdrop to the song, making the build-up to the opening lyrics slightly intense and perhaps dramatic, the vocals arrive at around twenty-two seconds in as Amy’s familiar powerful and energetic voice delivers the opening lyrics “Say what you will, I’ve got the urgency to kill/When you’re young you go too fast and it can be a long way down when you fall/But when you crash to the ground you feel nothing at all.” a couple of seconds of instrumentals pass before she shouts “And you’ve been writing you’re name beside your lovers in a notebook/Suddenly he leaves and finds somebody new/She loves all of the things that you used to laugh about/And she’s perkier too.” and the rhythm guitar and drum beats take the spotlight briefly as the lead guitar and bass take a more background role throughout the next verse as Amy once more fires out lyrics like “You’ll start singing out the songs that fill up your heart/Lyrics about how letting go is the hardest part/But that beautiful soft voice quickly changes its tone /And it’s now just became this repetitive narcissistic drone”

The lead guitar then dominates alongside the drums as the songs chorus arrives, providing a sharp and aggressive sound that complement the lyrical theme perfectly as Amy sings with a venomous tone, “This one goes out to all of the names written on the inside of my arm/From the cheaters and the liars/To the good guys that never meant no harm/But they turned bad and caused so much distress/But I loved them all I guess.” and the rhythm and bass guitars add a certain level of control in the song as Amy continues “So just remember all of the words that you had spoken/Because they all had an effect/And remember all of the beating hearts that are now all broken/A long list of former lovers all filled with regret.” the lead guitar and drums continue to be in the forefront of the song throughout the final parts, before the dramatic keys of a piano provided by Amy arrive to add slightly more emotion in a following verse as Amy sings with an almost melancholic delivery beyond her years, “ Have you ever felt empty and like you don’t belong?/Have you ever found yourself fighting back the tears while trying to sing a song?/A song of love made for the broken hearted/A song that reminds you of a love that has departed/Do you hold your arms around your chest when you’re lying in bed alone?/Do you feel like a ghost inside your own home?/I wish I could say that memories fade away in good time/But I still remember all of mine” and the guitar and drums dominance come back into the fore for the chorus as the final verse of the song.

SONGWRITERS THOUGHTS

“This song feels like the beginning of a new dawn of sorts for Riot! In The Boulevard, I think collectively we’ve all improved in all aspects of making music, from the songwriting to the composition and production and I like to think that this is the beginning of the next chapter for the band. As the lead single from our next record I feel like it has to bridge the gap between what has gone before and what is set to arrive and I think this song perhaps encapsulates those two parts of our bands history and future. It’s always difficult to find new ground when it comes to songwriting, we’ve written three albums worth of material in such a short space of time so it’s bound to be challenging to find new things to sing about or to even put a new spin on an old theme.
Putting a new spin on an old theme is what I think we’ve done with this song, it’s very much a revenge anthem of sorts. It’s a song about being hurt in love, a theme that has been covered so many times by musicians throughout the years, including by our own band. But I think that this song has a sort of different way of saying those things, lyrically I think there’s a little more maturity in this song, it’s a lot more refined and I think there’s certain lines in the song that we wouldn’t have came up with in any of the songs from our last three records.

I think that as a band, because we’ve covered so much ground in such a short space of time that we’re going to become more susceptible to criticism than before, I think it’s almost inevitable. Former fans of the band could begin growing out of our music, I’m quite certain that the previous record may have lost Riot! In The Boulevard a few of our ‘hardcore’ fans, the ones that fell in love at the very beginning and this is all part of the industry that we’re in, so we feel like this new record and the leading single could see some of our older fans disappear but I also think that the record and this song will also see us bring in a lot of people who haven’t particularly been fans in the past. The music industry is one of the most fickle industries to be a part of but luckily we’re in a position where we can afford to put out the sort of music that we want to put out, we have been in that position ever since we broke into the industry, I think we’ve been lucky in that way. But more importantly, we’re in a position where we’re able to try out different things.
We did that on the last record and I’ll be the first to say that in hindsight it was easily our worst collection of music, but we tried something out that at the time we thought sounded like it could be something special, but it wasn’t, despite the commercial success that the last record achieved. Although I will say that it brought the band to an even wider audience than before. And I know people can be touchy about ‘alternative genres’, having commercial success can often be seen as a negative thing in the rock world but it’s not. Why should it be frowned upon for a band to have as many fans as they possibly can, I’ve always stated that I want this band to be seen and heard by as many people as possible and we came into the music industry as annoying little misfits hell bent on world domination, we were hugely ambitious from the very beginning and we will remain that way until the very end.”

- Amy Meyer

LYRICS

“Say what you will, I’ve got the urgency to kill
When you’re young you go too fast and it can be a long way down when you fall
But when you crash to the ground you feel nothing at all
And you’ve been writing your name beside your lovers in a notebook
Suddenly he leaves and finds someone new
She loves all of the things that you used to laugh about
And she’s perkier too

Then you’re sat alone on your bedroom floor in the middle of the night
All you have is the company of the blue moonlight
And you’ll begin to wonder about the deepest meanings of love
You’ll start singing out the songs that fill up your heart
Lyrics about how letting go is the hardest part
But that beautiful soft voice quickly changes its tone
And it’s now just became this repetitive narcissistic drone

This one goes out to all of the names written on the inside of my arm
From the cheaters and the liars
To the good guys that never meant no harm
But they turned bad and caused so much distress
But I loved them all I guess
So just remember all of the words that you had spoken
Because they all had an effect
And remember all of the beating hearts that are now all broken
A long list of former lovers all filled with regret

We’re just another high school victim
Struggling to make sense of a world that seems so cold
All we want is something special
Someone to turn to when we grow old
But life is just so awkward when you’re young
And love just seems like a fairytale story
But pretty soon you realize that it ain’t all hope and glory
Hearts break all of the time
They should make falling in love become a crime

Have you ever felt empty and like you don’t belong?
Have you ever found yourself fighting back the tears while trying to sing a song?
A song of love made for the broken hearted
A song that reminds you of a love that has departed
Do you hold your arms around your chest when you’re lying in bed alone?
Do you feel like a ghost inside your own home?
I wish I could say that memories fade away in good time
But I still remember all of mine

And this one goes out to all of the names written on the inside of my arm
From the cheaters and the liars
To the good guys that never meant no harm
But they turned bad and caused so much distress
But I loved them all I guess
So just remember all of the words that you had spoken
Because they all had an effect
And remember all of the beating hearts that are now all broken
A long list of former lovers all filled with regret”

PERSONNEL

Amy Meyer – lead vocals, piano, lyrics, composition, production
Adam Benjamin – rhythm guitar, backing vocals, lyrics, composition, production
Justin Mullen – lead guitar, backing vocals, lyrics, composition, production
Jason Greenberg – bass guitar, composition, production
Nathan Mullen – drums, percussion, composition, production
Avil Hartman – production, mixing
Julian Morello – production, mixing, engineering


SOUNDS LIKE

Tonight Alive – Thank You & Goodnight