While Primitive Normative was the first Plaid On Flannel concept album, I was writing and recording songs that could connect with each other in a certain way. To make the album's sum bigger than it's parts. From musical ideas to lyrics. "Make Them Understand" has a 33 second orchestral introduction using a 5 channel string section. The MIDI software instruments I used were a warm string section for the melody, backed up by violin, viola, cello, and bass sections all playing different parts. And in concept album fashion, the string intro to "Make Them Understand" has the same chord progression and melody as the slide guitar solo section to "Team Of People" from the same album. Both songs are in the same key of C, but the tempo for "Make Them Understand" is slower than the tempo for "Team Of People". This chord progression is also used in the guitar solo section of "Make Them Understand", with different guitar solo melodies. The "Team Of People" slide guitar solo is also backed up by a string section, but it's not as layered as the string section from "Make Them Understand".
Technically, I started writing the music for "Make Them Understand" when I wrote the music for "Team Of People" on June 18, 2013. But I wrote the bulk of the music for "Make Them Understand" on August 18, 2015. And I started writing that music knowing it would be a continuation of "Team Of People". Envisioning a string section introducing a hard rock song. "Team Of People" is more of a rootsy folk rock song. But I knew "Make Them Understand" would be a heavier rocker as soon as I wrote it. I began recording "Make Them Understand" on September 19, 2015. The intro after the intro was inspired by the introduction to Golden Earring's "Radar Love". In "Make Them Understand", this is the section when the guitars, bass, drums, and keyboards come in together. During this part, I applied layered guitar octave swells on my Digitech whammy pedal. Something I used a lot over the course of the Primitive Normative album.
Keyboardist Jen Doyon joined the Plaid On Flannel band on February 22, 2015. She had a range of effects that she would use on different POF songs. One of those effects being a funky and distorted clavinet, as heard on the song "Maybe" from the Rising Above EP. I had never used a clavinet on a Plaid On Flannel song before, but I decided to use one on "Make Them Understand". I was planning for it to be a song we would play in the Plaid On Flannel band, but it never actually happened. I added clavinet in "Make Them Understand" to tailor to Jen's keyboard sound. This distorted clavinet can be heard throughout the entire song.
"Make Them Understand" was the first song I ever recorded where I use a pre-chorus before the 2nd chorus, but not before the 1st chorus. So it's only heard once in the tune. This is a trick I used that was inspired by a song called "Funkmobile" by 1990s Canadian band Bass Is Base. I finished recording "Make Them Understand" on October 24, 2015. Although the song has never actually been played with a band, I'd like to try it out with a POF band in the future.
lyrics
Words and music by Nolan Randall
You look around the alley
for the people you never forget
A primitive condition has not
gotten the best of you yet
Your life is changing
It's not the same thing you wanted it to be
The right people are hard to find
And they're harder to foresee
Take everything you have
And try to make them understand
While you've done nothing bad
It's not always the way you planned, a-whoa-ho
The people that you've met are not
exactly what you're looking for
Well, they are so different than
most of the people you've met before
It's alright, they just might
be the very people you need
Maybe you could give them
all of the things you need to succeed
See what you feel, there's too much to reveal
Got to make time to perpetuate the spinning wheel
Take everything you have
And try to make them understand
While you've done nothing bad
It's not always the way you planned
Be mindful of your fate
To be aware of who you are
Try to communicate
And that might get you very far, a-whoa-ho
Go somewhere else, the journey sees you through
Where you want to end up is completely up to you
Take everything you have
And try to make them understand
While you've done nothing bad
It's not always the way you planned
Be mindful of your fate
To be aware of who you are
Try to communicate
And that might get you very far, a-whoa-ho
Plaid On Flannel is an alternative indie blues rock act from Toronto, Canada. With 80+ original songs recorded since 2011,
singer-songwriter Nolan Randall has remained the sole constant member of the band. POF's music is known for guitar riffs/solos, memorable hooks, catchy melodies/harmonies, evocative lyrics, & superb musicianship. While keeping a focus on originality and songwriting quality....more
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