Heart Attack Man, ‘Joyride The Pale Horse’ | Track By Track

Heart Attack Man guide us track by track through the creation of their new album ‘Joyride The Pale Horse’, out now.One More Song (Imposter Syndrome)“The original idea for this song spawned from an intrusive, recurring thought I have any time I write a song — “What if this is it?” and after this song I’ll never be able to write a good song again. It’s a sentiment entirely rooted in insecurity, which feeds into the “imposter syndrome” undercurrent of the song.

It’s a tale as old as time for any creative person. I also thought it would be funny to have a song called “One More Song” for if people ever chanted that at a show, and it would be even funnier to open the album with “One More Song.” We have fun here.



”End Of The Gun“If you were around for our previous album “Freak Of Nature,” you’d be surprised, perhaps even incredulous, to hear that the follow up album would only have one reference to firearms—but here we are. This is a much more abstract use of that imagery, but in any event, this song came from the feelings of being severely wrong in a needlessly public and bitter feud I was involved in years ago. It’s not fun being wrong, but sometimes all you can do is own up to it, make peace, and write a song with a banger key change about it all.

I am if anything a flawed person.”Spit“This song was perhaps the most spontaneous of this album—just write a riff; two verses, two choruses, no bridge. Don’t overthink it; just take a walk and don’t let yourself come home until you have lyrics that are meaningful and memorable.

Forcing myself to walk until a song’s lyrics are done has proven to be a very effective tool for me. I much prefer it to sitting on an exercise bike—I think the external stimulation helps me. I’m not a robot after all.

” Lay Down And Die“This song is perhaps the most heartfelt of the album. My neighbor and childhood friend passed away a couple years ago. He wasn’t much older than me, but all things considered, it unfortunately didn’t come completely by surprise, and this song is my first journey into grieving that kind of loss—I’ve lost people before, even some close to my age, but none before where I have so many core childhood memories with them.

It’s sad, tragic, confusing, and even very frustrating; but this song is my grieving process.” Laughing Without Smiling“It wouldn’t be a Heart Attack Man album if we didn’t have a song with a big fat tasty riff to remind everyone we’re professional shredders now would it? In a way, we feel this song single-handedly encapsulates and condenses our previous album into one song. It’s an ambiguous message to a nameless muse about squandering life, potential, and energy on things that don’t really matter; and perhaps more personally an internal pep talk to get through the times where I need some extra motivation.

” Call Of The Void“I originally thought of the idea behind this song when I was browsing an antique store and I thought to myself, “What if I just broke everything in here?” I didn’t actually consider it, but these kinds of thoughts, much like thinking about crashing your car when you’re driving, are called “the call of the void,” and I thought the idea of this played into the theme of our album very appropriately. Through my research, I was surprised to find that this phenomenon has not been touched on frequently in music, so this song has an especially fun and unique thing going on to me.”Can’t Slow Down“The idea for this song came from the desire to make a short, fast song.

We hadn’t done a song with this drum beat before, so it was really fresh and exciting. The title is a nod to early Saves The Day. Thematically, it was inspired by the fear of missing out on life and not knowing if the last time you see someone will be the last time ever, considering we spend long chunks of time away from home living the life we do.

” One Good Reason“With this song, I mainly wanted to have a song that experimented around with the meter of the parts of the song (I’m not a well-versed music theory guy) and also make use of a non-lyrical vocal hook. We’ve never really messed around with ooo’s and ahhh’s, so in the spirit of doing new things we also added in cowbell for the first time. Lyrically, it’s in a similar vein of Call Of The Void—toying around with intrusive thoughts and internal monologue—but this time in the context of discomfort in social settings rather than completely snapping in an antique store.

” I’ll See You There“The central theme of this song is in ways the response to the call of End Of The Gun—addressing the ambiguous, perfect protagonist with snark and disdain. It’s definitely talking shit on myself in a way, and meant to be a lesson in humility; but this time set against the backdrop of talking about hell and what happens after death.” The Gallows“The lyrics of this song were intended to be the straightforward, reassuring, pep talk kind of message we’ve dabbled in as a band.

Something of a welcome note from the other side of struggle. A lot of this album might come off as more melancholic talking about death so much, so this was a way of referencing it all in a more uplifting light—a reminder that there can be triumph in the dance with death.” Quit While I’m Still Ahead“The main spark of inspiration for this song came from a story I’d heard (but admittedly can’t remember exactly where I read or saw it) about a man who killed himself because he was so happy and his life was at an all time high, so he wanted to end it all on top, and avoid ever feeling misery again.

Whether or not this is true, I don’t know, but that idea filtered into my thought process for the song and how it could relate to the creative process—should I stop making music at a high point? It was also meant to be the penultimate track because there being another song after it goes against the idea of quitting while I’m ahead. It’s kind of the sister song to One More Song now that I think about it.” Joyride The Pale Horse“The final track.

The title track. Fittingly enough, this song’s origins actually started out on the chopping block of our last record. It was an idea that wasn’t ready yet, and therefore wasn’t fully fleshed out.

After some time, and considering how the base idea had stuck with me, it made sense to revisit the original idea and have it be one of the starting ideas for the album. This one kind of sums it all up and is a big homage to my acute awareness of death, without outright saying it or calling it by name. It’s where the album started taking thematic shape for me, which is why it’s the title track, and I dunno, it just felt like a good closer from the beginning.

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