One thing I always tend to do is name a release before I’ve written the title track for it. I did it with all 3 releases where a word or phrase sticks in my head and I use it for the title of a CD without yet writing the song nor knowing what it will be about or how it will sound.
The phrase “Hearts For Bullets” came to me, and I knew it’s what this CD would be titled. Origianally, I had these images in my head about war and the trading of hearts for bullets, or what the weight is equivalent to.. hearts vs. bullets, etc. but nothing was really developing out of that thought pattern beyond that. The awesome thing about this title for the CD though, was that it lead to some incredible design work and cool guns & hearts crests, and logos that became the Ayria look and identity for this release. It also tied in perfectly with the EP for this release “The Gun Song” which I have still to dissect, but this was a CD filled with guns, violence and love.. and pink!
The song “Hearts For Bullets” became more about some good old fashioned girl hate. Not directed at anyone in particular, and if anything, a bit self-directed too (only a bit, I’m not that evil), so wrap your brain around THAT! Have you ever seen a friend fall for someone so hard, and they can’t recognize that the object of their affection is just toying with them, because they know they can. OR known a girl (or boy), so angry that they’ve isolated themselves to a point where they have become somewhat of a monster capable of causing others around them that want to love them, to suffer by their actions without caring? I’m not always inspired to write lyrics based on other music I’ve heard, but in this case, I did find some of my inspiration in a song called “Chinese Burn” by a 90’s band called Curve. I loved them and would consider them an early influence for sure! If you’ve never heard of them, please check them out. The songs I’d recommend: Crystal, Men Are From Mars, Chinese Burn & Doppleganger just to name only a few from this great band that created a unique style with a pretty wide sonic wall of sound compared to the more upbeat sparser style of my own music. Anyways, I like pimping other great bands, and like the song Chinese Burn, my own song talks about some pretty evil girl traits. Hearts For Bullets focuses on a girl who will shut you up, demand you bow down, has no remorse, watches you hold your breath for fun, and enjoys seeing your suffering. Though you want her, she can’t possibly love you back, she’s incapable and she just wants a reaction from you, she uses her heart for a bullet, to kill her target.. because she knows she can.
“What are the side effects when another heart it starts to defect with no warrenty?”
This is my favourite lyric in the song mainly because I like the imagery, and I think it’s harsh yet cute.
“I think we’ve met the enemy. Conquest is on her mind today. She can’t help it.”
This lyric in the bridge sums everything all up perfectly before the song goes into it’s final, droning yet epic repetitions of the chorus and all my added “Ooohing” and “Ahhhh”ing.
Other Weird and Interesting Facts About the song “Hearts For Bullets”:
- It was the last song to be written, recorded and produced for the CD already titled “Hearts For Bullets” so I felt an added pressure for this title track to be good!
- This song is 133 BPM, which is one BPM higher than “Six Seconds” @ 132 BPM although Six Seconds FEELS like a faster song to me. Am I crazy? Perhaps, but I think it’s mainly because Six Seconds is more aggressive.
- I’ve been told by a few fans that the synth melody reminds them of a remixed version of another 90’s song by a band called the Sneaker Pimps called “Spin Spin Sugar”. It was unintentional but I did love the Sneaker Pimps Becoming X CD, and often my voice has been compared to their singer at the time. Although, she only sang on one CD.
- The belting out of the chorus always reminds me of Pat Benetar, but I don’t know why. I think Pat Benetar could have sang this song well! Ahhhh Pat. This is funny because on the limited edition of Hearts For Bullets there’s a cover of Pat Benetar’s “Invincible” and I only did that cover specifically because a dear friend in San Francisco asked me to cover that song for the anniversary of his long running club night “Death Guild” there.
- Off topic fact that’s related to cover songs: I never even thought about attempting a cover song until my 3rd CD: Hearts For Bullets, and even then, they were only put on the special edition CD. For this special edition, I covered Deftones: Change, Pat Benetar’s: Invincible, and to date, I’ve also covered Depeche Mode’s: In Your Room and worked on a U2 cover of: New Year’s Day with Aiboforcen that never got completed unfortunately. I don’t have a problem with covers. It’s a lot less work to sing what others have already written, I just didn’t want a cover song to be the reason my music got attention. I preferred to rely on my own stuff to make a mark. It’s been my opinion that bands that get popular only by the exposure of a cover song, never seem to last. That being said, with 50 original songs under my belt now just as Ayria, I feel free to have fun doing covers when the opportunity comes up!
- My live band members Mike, Jeff and Kevin, have ALL told me at some point that Hearts For Bullets is their favourite song from the CD, and the always request we play it live. I don’t listen to them since I’m the boss and get to make up the set list 
, So we’ve only played it on the 2009 Canadian tour, where Ayria was the headliner, a few times on the Project Pitchfork tour, and maybe one or two other headlining shows.. It’s not that I don’t like the song, it’s just not my favourite to fit into the live set and I have so many other songs from HFB that I love to play over this one (sorry!). It’s clear I have too many songs!
- Oh and “HFB” is the abbreviation and code for Hearts For Bullets and I’ve used HFB in so many emails to band members when talking about sets, merch, etc. Much like MROTW has become the new name for “My Revenge On The World” since I hate typing it all out!
- One of my tricks to “hype” up a song is to layer a 4×4 beat with a sampled beat. This song has this technique and you’ll hear in the chorus, this is the beat that comes in, it’s subtle but I love the effect. This was that underlying beat:
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- This breakdown part where the vocals are just me going “Ahhhh,Ahhhhh, Ahhh, Ahhh” always reminds me of the lead guitar solo of Led Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven. Yep, I said it. It was completely unintentional. Here is is, and here you can also hear the sampled beat in this breakdown I mentioned above.
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- There are some pretty heavy guitars on this song at the end played by and added in production by Seb Komor. There were no guitars in the original demo and I thought they added a lot to the textures and depth of this song! I love how rocking it all gets by the end of the song.
- I do some “ah ah ah ahaha ahhhh” before the second verse starts. I had fun putting this in the song, I don’t know why. It’s just really fun to sing.
- I found this clip of the song we cut out of the final version before mastering, it’s never before been heard! This was in the first verse, but Seb and I decided the song didn’t need this “bridge” type part in both verses as it slows down the flow of the song before the “No more girl next door” chanting part. We decided it was effective enough happening just once in the second verse:
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That’s all I can think to share about this song, if you have any comments, questions or points I might have missed, let me know! For now, I will reveal to you that once again, on my next upcoming release, I have titled it before recording the title track, and it wasn’t the last song to be recorded, but the upcoming CD will be titled: “Plastic Makes Perfect”. More news to come soon on this I hope. Otherwise, note that a mini-tour of the American East Coast is currently being booked with the first confirmed show on April 23rd in Philadelphia so far! If you are a promoter who wants a piece of the touring action, contact me asap!
Have a wonderful start to 2011, and I hope to see everyone of you soon! 3 more song dissections to finish what I’ve started with Hearts For Bullets: The Gun Song, Six Seconds and My Poison. Then, possibly more!
Much love,
Jennifer
Previous Song Dissections:
1000 Transmissions
Bad List
Invisible
Analog Trash
Suck It Up
Insect Calm
Blue Alice
Girl On The Floor
If you’ve enjoyed reading this and wish to own this song and want to support me directly, please either check out my shop or purchase the mp3 of Hearts For Bullets from iTunes for a mere dollar:
