On Some Track Commentary

First, I told you what was goin' down and sooner than you thought, I posted up the two tracks available now for your listening pleasure and download for FREE and now I decided that I'd throw in some commentary on each track discussing and explaining how these two tracks came to be in which you hear now in your ears. So, allow me for a moment to further go on to the tracks than just hearing them. But first, a brief origin of how the group came to be...


It all started with just a simple idea and yet a very simple, but meaningful, group name. We were talking for awhile about making our own band...and long story short, it actually came to be. With our name, Second Nature, it was set. I was the one that actually came up with the name, quite simply, because I remember watching this Hip-Hop documentary about emcees and how they would describe their talent and how they would freestyle/write their rhymes...and I remember this one dude saying that when he's rapping that it's just so natural, automatic, organic...that it just became second nature...So I thought, wow...this is it. That's going to be our name because the name basically just relates and parallels how we play our instruments, just as that guy who rhymes. With that done, it was time we did some songs...and those two songs that you've heard already did justice on how we've become...even more so, now. Within these two tracks are the origins which I will go into now...We thank you for listening.


You Are This song came to be, basically just for the mom's out there...Hence this was for the Mother's Day celebration at church. Around that, however, it was more of an experiment and an establishment of sounds, words, and the people--mainly friends--that helped us out. Basically speaking, we were trying things out and trying to find out what we should sound like and what we sound like. To me, I really believe that we should stress, stretch, and further our knowledge, play, and styles to any genre of music...even the types of music that WE are into and like listening to. Anyways, I'll save the rest of that for another time...But the song wasn't as easy to write or even think about first...I remember it being quite hard for us--couldn't think about anything; words, meaning, style, sound...But then after awhile--I think it was some time in April that we came up with it...being it took almost that entire month, probably in May, also, when we were still working on it and finally getting it all done--we started getting stuff done to the song. The idea came from John which would ultimately be our first track for our group (I remember that John and I were talking about our first song for our band...this was it) and then it was Sean, Jas, and I that helped out with it with more lyrics and the guitar. We really didn't want to do play and sing anything cheesy and meaningless to what that day brought so we had to think of something fun and meaningful for the mom's out there...and ultimately it all worked out, as you can hear. I didn't really do much for the lyrics, but I was a major help in sound, and style wise, for the track...I've already thought of a beat and style that would fit this particular track, stuck to it, layed down the drums, and nailed it. The bomb was dropped and this is what you hear now...However, the version played at church was different than the one you hear now. Different being the drums and a little on the guitar with the fills. The version that you hear now was recorded and semi-redone at the "lab"...Acapella part was done with hand claps provided by the trio--J.R., Me, and Sean. I tell you, those hand claps were fun to do, yet funny. Challenging track, but uber fun. Brainstormed and semi-played at Sean's house--big up, bro.

Produced by: Second Nature

J.R. - Electric Guitar, lead Vocals--let's not forget the hand claps...
Sean Lacson - Electric Guitar, additional Vocals, lead producer--another clapper...
Jas Somentac - additional lyrics, Bass Guitar, occasional Electric/Vocals
B.Major - Drums, secondary producer--the other, other...clapper


Guardian To me, this is my favorite out of the two, simply because of the lyrics and sound throughout the track and the meaning behind it. This song was for the papa's out there, and--you guessed it, for Father's Day. Performed at church for the celebration of the Papa's, this was our second track from our group, which followed right along side nicely with "You Are". If you listen carefully and compare the two songs, this song has some elements from our first track...Why? Well, I'll tell you why. I think there was one reason because "trying for something new" didn't really quite worked out how we would've liked it to be. The main reason was that it was even more difficult to write something new and basically, didn't have anything thought out. So we basically took elements off "You Are" and used that as our template to come up with a song for Father's Day. What's changed, obviously, was the lyrics...and more so on how we played it. The instruments are different versus the first song we did. I think originally we were going to keep the same style of play from the first track and wanted to change it...slightly. But we didn't want to sound redundant, so we completely just came up with a different style of play--still rock, but still keep the funness and rock vibes just like our first track. Again, it was The 4-Man Crew that came out and helped with contributions by Jason on, I believe, it was the first verse. It was done and written by him to replace the "You Are" lyrics--remember, we used that track as a template for this one--and it lead to a snowball-effect which lead everyone else--minus Me--write new lyrics in which "Guardian" was now fully born. Again, I helped out but more for the drums and I stuck to the same style, but added some flava' to it. This, too, is a different version than the one you've might've heard performed at church. This song was created some time on June 18th, just a few days shy of Father's Day...it was all-together crunch time.

Produced by: Second Nature

J.R. - Electric Guitar, lead Vocals
Sean Lacson - Electric Guitar, additional Vocals, lead producer
Jas Somentac - assistance, additional Vocals
B.Major - Drums, secondary producer
Jason Cruz - additional lyrics

***For both, these were recorded, redone, reedited at the "lab" with a not very soundproof "vocal booth" at LWCC. Hey...you laugh now, but you gotta work with what you have...right?

b.