On Songwriting

Greetings Darklings,

Okay, so, Glory asked me to write something about songwriting for the blog. Here goes.

Surroundings matter. Or they do for me, anyway. We used to play in Savvy's garage but her neighbors had a problem with that we rent a little rehearsal space now. For a while anyway. We've got posters of some of our favorite bands up and stuff like that for inspiration.

A song usually starts with Savvy dicking around on guitar until she finds a riff, and if it's one we all feel, it pulls us in. Like a black hole or something. If it's good, it's got a gravitational pull. Glory finds the rhythm, the heartbeat of the abyss. My bass lines creep in, low and heavy. And then Lydia...

Technically, Lydia fills in the bass line, but she really does more than that. You might think it's weird to have a trombone in a metal band but, honestly, that just means you haven't met Lydia. Don't let the floral prints fool you -- she's the metalest of all of us. (Doesn't hurt that she's a better musician than any of us either.) (Shut up, Savvy, you know it's true.)

I think it's fair to say that lyrics are mostly me, but everybody contributes a line or even a whole song idea at some point. Sometimes they come from bits of angsty journal entries or whatever -- but it doesn't have to be anything super deep. It just has to be honest. Does that make sense? The difference between "deep" and "honest" is hard to explain. I mean, one time we were so hype after a horror movie marathon that we wrote three songs in two days. I think if you try to force something to be deep it's just going to be corny.

Basically, we take the chaos of being teens in the year of our lord 2024 and try to turn it into something that feels like you want to scream it.

Here's something I almost don't want to share but, like, “Nightmare No. 2” literally came from how I felt when I wasn't prepared for a test. I have anxiety and I was freaked out about letting everyone down. The line:

imaginary numbers

counting down from blue

imaginary faces

they wanted more from you

...is about fucking math, of all things. Actual "imaginary numbers." At one point the line was supposed to be "imaginary faces, disappointed by the view" but Sav felt like "disappointed" was too hard to sing, so we changed it. I think it's better now, but I didn't like it at first.

Is this enough? I can't tell. I hope so. BG3 is waiting for me.

Keep it heavy, Riley/STFU 🖤

Should we make merch?

Hey Metalheads!

Would you rock STFU merch? Let us know in the comments.

Horns up!

🤘STFU

Origin Story

Hey Metalheads,

Gather 'round, because it's time for the epic origin story of STFU! 🎸🔥

Once upon a time, in the darkest forest in Portland, four souls were destined to collide in an explosion of sound and fury!

My name is Glory, and I was born with drumsticks in my hands (my mom was not a fan, for obvious reasons).

Savvy, our guitar-wielding siren, shreds like she’s summoning the apocalypse with every riff.

Riley, our bassist, found solace in the low-end rumble of bass notes, channeling the void within.

And Lydia... well, Lydia brought the unexpected power of the bass trombone into the mix, proving that brass can be brutal.

We met in Modern Conflicts class, of course. Where else? Theoretically the band already existed before me, but uh... only theoretically.

Anyway, once we found each other we vowed that our band that would be louder, darker, and more face-melting than anything Portland had ever seen before. And thus, STFU was born.

Stay tuned, because this is just the beginning of our journey into the abyss.

Stay Heavy, STFU 🤘