Unfall II
Lyrics & Credits
An Acoustic EP
by Chase Tremaine
Released March 15, 2024
Independent, released in partnership with Post Emo Records
Download the digital album for free
(With four live bonus tracks)
1. “The Ride (Hold On To Me)”
Click Here to Read About the Song and its Themes
We can’t merely be along for the ride
Passivity would break us
We will train our hearts and minds to abide
No matter what it takes us
But I’m harnessed to my remorse
Tried to get free yet I’m unable
We so quickly got off course
From when I promised you something stable
Hard times come and sometimes stay
And the fact is, they don’t have to change
Will we make it, will we break
If we get saddled with lifelong pain?
I don’t want to buckle beneath the weight
Of the vows I spent my whole life trying to make
Tragedy is approaching from all sides
Are you threatened to forsake us?
We can’t rein it in or take it in stride
It beckons to remake us
It’ll cut down to the source
Halting every cheap name and label
Until we acknowledge its force
And invite it to eat at our table
Hard times come and sometimes stay
And the fact is, they don’t have to change
Will we make it, will we break
If we get saddled with lifelong pain?
I don’t want to buckle beneath the weight
Of the vows I spent my whole life trying to make
She stands far too tall, so I help you to mount
Unaccustomed to being so high off the ground
No helmets, no training, not even a rein
You hold on to me, I grasp onto the mane
When she starts to trot, we want her to gallop
When she starts her gallop, we want her to stop
What seemed so exciting is now so unsafe
It’s too late to ask how we got to this place
We’re picking up pace toward an unknown terrain
You hold on to me, I grasp onto the mane
Brisker motion than we ever expected
Hold tight with whatever trust we’ve collected
Hard times come and sometimes stay
And the fact is, they don’t have to change
Will we make it, will we break
If we get saddled with lifelong pain?
I don’t want to buckle beneath the weight
Of the vows I spent my whole life trying to make
2. “Improve You Wrong”
If I’ve got one skill
It’s being all that you wanted
But I know I’ve got a few because the other ones include
Self-delusion and being dishonest
So what can you do when I’m faking with you?
If you stick with me
We’re gonna break like a mirror
Let our image blend together as we stumble towards forever
With no option to reset the error
So what do you say when I ask you to stay?
I’m gonna improve you wrong
Make you fall in love
With a lesser version of yourself
You’re gonna improve me wrong
Make me fall in love
With a lesser version of myself
I see me in you
And I’m starting to worry
Because I act like I love me when what I really think of me
Means I’ll start hating you in a hurry
So what can you do when projections come true?
If just one regret
Can snowball into a lifetime
Then you better start to snuggle with person that you are now
Because you’ll never roll up a cliffside
So what do you say to forget yesterday?
I’m gonna improve you wrong
Make you fall in love
With a lesser version of yourself
You’re gonna improve me wrong
Make me fall in love
With a lesser version of myself
We’re stuck in feedback loops of growth, death, and drift
To always please me is a burden you were not made to lift
We’re stuck in feedback loops of growth, death, and drift
We form each other til our former selves are merely a myth
I’m gonna improve you wrong
But would I fall in love
With a better version of you?
You’re gonna improve me wrong
So might you fall in love
With a better version of me?
3. “Worth the Risk”
You could’ve had your pick
Who knew that we would stick?
Thought I’d ruin us by now
Self-fulfilled prophecies
Kept me from lovely things
Every chance, I’d take a bow
But then I took a knee
Asked if you would take the leap
Redemption through a vow
Exposing my fear
Was worth the risk
Inviting you near
Was worth the risk
To know and to be known
And loose all that I own
Will be worth the risk
All that we will swear to
Praying that we’ll stand true
So we can build something great
As I stare through the veil
Knowing that I will fail
I’ll collapse under the weight
But we will not quit yet
From this day, with faces set
On love we won’t negate
Our promise will be
Worth the risk
Our promise will be
Worth the risk
To choose to not be free
To limit liberty
Will be worth the risk
I’m terrified you’ll regret this oath we take
Trading hearts to save or break
Exposing my fear
Was worth the risk
Inviting you near
Was worth the risk
To know and to be known
And loose all that I own
Will be worth it
By covenant
We risk it all
With no guarantee
We risk it all
To choose to not be free
To limit liberty
Will be, will be
Because you are
Worth it all
4. “Death Decide”
Death swallowed me whole, I set up camp inside
Making friends and making lovers with no time left to bide
Dwellings made of paper turned too damp to hide
Away from fire, water, earth, air, void, and my swelling pride
But wait
I know what came first
But wait
Laws told us what’s worst
But wait
We draw careful lines
But wait
And take careful sides
Who am I to decide what’s good and what’s evil
But who are you to tell me that I’m wrong?
And why do we prop ourselves up so quickly
To judge what does and doesn’t belong?
Life became a plague I need to save us from
You’ll be thankful when I do my work and add up the sum
Institutions thwart me and my work as scum
But if you let me promise one thing: I will never succumb
Just wait
We’ll know that we’re right
Just wait
When we win the fight
It’s fate
To remove the blight
It’s fate
To correct your sight
Who am I to decide what’s good and what’s evil
But who are you to tell me that I’m wrong?
And why do we prop ourselves up so quickly
To judge what does and doesn’t belong?
Never a draw
Sever the law
Hushed and in awe
Crushed by the jaw
Swallow you whole
Billows will roll
Sorrow’s the toll
Burrow your soul
Who am I to decide who’s good and who’s evil
But who are you to tell me that I’m wrong?
And why do we prop ourselves up so quickly
To judge who does and doesn’t belong?
5. “Synthetic Desert”
“Come one, come all
To Evolution’s Peak
Revere the design
Of self-sufficiency
A synthetic desert
A paradise
You’ll see for yourself
For one small price”
As the man of the cave sings…
“Come get everything you need
Right here, I’ve got a deal indeed
Come get everything you need
Right here, I’ve got a deal indeed”
He makes me feel like a lower species
Needing others for my necessities
Working and paying and begging, “please”
Surviving with no guarantees
As the legend goes, he started from scratch
Two hands, one mind, and a plan to hatch
Divorce himself from the rest of the globe
So nothing is bought and nothing is owed
The elements, he mechanized
Until the whole earth idolized
Society created in one man’s cave
His kingdom throne, his home and grave
His kingdom throne, his home and grave
So we paid the entry fee to get through the door
Unsure what he could need our money for
But still excited to see this legend for ourselves
Once we get past the souvenirs that he sells
The glow of the lights grows dim
As we descend further in
Until we finally reach the towns
Built into these grays and browns
Semblance of society
Smaller, cheaper, crumbling
So proud this is all his
But is this all there is?
As the man of the cave sings
“Come get everything you need
Right here, I’ve got a deal indeed
Come get everything you need
Right here, I’ve got a deal indeed”
Mustn’t there be more that my ticket buys?
Or were all those legends merely lies?
Is this the place where humanity thrives
Or did he just barely stay alive?
And as we realize our mistake
And the ground beneath us starts to shake
We won’t get stuck within this hole
We have got to run to save our souls
We won’t get stuck within this hole
We have got to run to save our souls
As we run we see him there
Peering out above the square
Smiling lips, eyes filled with fear
The enigma of knowing that he’d die here
He calls this place Evolution’s Peak
As the light escapes and our odds get bleak
Synthetic desert or just desserts
Bracing to learn how much death hurts
He was crazy after all
Now we join him in his fall
He was crazy after all
Now we join him in his fall
He thought he was better off on his own
But no one ever dies alone
His home and grave, his kingdom throne
And no one ever dies
No one ever dies alone
6. “Honest Living (Someday Best)”
The ax I wield yields to my decree
Chopping through each ring of helpless trees
Then gather up, burn the spurned debris
To make an honest living
Future-me is looking great
Dressed up in his someday best
All his limbs covered in leaves
And no sins to be confessed
If I’m honest
Living like I am now
I’ll never get there
If I’m hiding
It’s because I’m too ashamed
That all my limbs are bare
Pull the roots, undress for nest or shade
Cut the knees, no breeze within the glade
Using my own bone to hone the blade
But is it honest living?
Future-me is looking great
Dressed up in his someday best
All his limbs covered in leaves
And no sins to be confessed
If I’m honest
Living like I am now
I’ll never get there
If I’m hiding
It’s because I’m too ashamed
That all my limbs are bare
Scheming up my someday best
Is a lying dream, a dying request
Caring about what the future’s wearing
Instead of the fruit that the present’s bearing
Scheming up my someday best
Is a lying dream, a dying request
Caring about what the future’s wearing
Instead of the fruit that the present’s bearing
Future-me is looking great
Dressed up in his someday best
All his limbs covered in leaves
And no sins to be confessed
If I’m honest
Living like I am now
I’ll never get there
If I’m hiding
It’s because I’m too ashamed
That all my limbs are bare
Full Album Credits
Music and lyrics written and performed by Chase Tremaine
Engineered, mixed, and mastered by Sean Power (The Hilson Studio)
Artwork designed by Chase Tremaine, original painting by Lauren Lockerbie, Unfall logo by Chase Tremaine and Megan Kirkpatrick
About the Album
It all comes full circle. This is as much the end of an era as it is the beginning of an exciting new journey.
Full disclosure, I originally thought I’d be releasing Unfall II in 2021, maybe 2022 at the latest. As many of you know, a b-sides EP ballooned into a sophomore album (D&C, which was recorded two whole times), then an acoustic sister-songs EP evolved into my third album (which received a lavish deluxe edition, to boot!), so plans got stretched out quite a bit. Yet though the timeline changed vastly, the intentions behind Unfall II stayed exactly the same across these past four years.
When the pandemic hit in early 2020, I had just released my debut album, with hopes of forming a band of players so that the songs could be performed live, with all their guitar riffs and vocal harmonies and other intricacies in tact. As I settled into an increasingly lengthy shutdown, with all dreams of concerts effectively dashed for the foreseeable future, I began to cope with the fact that if I was going to be performing music at all, it would be in the context of solo, acoustic performances, either in small group settings or livestreams.
However, I genuinely hated the idea of converting the songs from Unfall into acoustic renditions. In my mind, the arrangements and layers and background vocals were all so integral to the songwriting that it simply didn’t make sense to strip these songs down. It didn’t feel like I could do them justice. (I eventually found a satisfying middle ground by creating looper-pedal arrangements of the songs, but that’s beside the point.) That’s when I had the idea: what if I create new versions of these songs that are intended to be just one guitar and one vocal? What if I compose new interpretations of these songs that are perfect for the acoustic performance setting because they were written specifically for that context?
Enter: the sequel songs. These are compositions which continue the musical and thematic ideas of the originals, yet where lyric and melody take precedence over all, placing my vocals atop simpler-than-normal guitar work that’s tailor-made for livestreams, coffee shops, and campfires. And this gave me the challenge to craft the best lyrics and strongest melodies of my career to date, with no flashy guitar riffs or off-kilter drum beats to bolster them. Overall, I’m proud of how I stepped up to this challenge. Sure, I wouldn’t expect anyone to think that these six songs are literally the six best lyrics with the six best sets of melodies of my whole discography, but nevertheless, I’m extremely proud of how these songs came out and what they point to for the future of my music-making.
You may not know this, but my three studio albums contain songs that were almost exclusively written prior to 2020. D&C has two exceptions, but thirteen of its fifteen tracks were written between 2010 and 2019. I share that because Unfall II marks a significant transition point for me: the point where I am saying farewell to everything I wrote prior to the release of Unfall. From this point forward, everything I release will be music and lyrics from the 2020’s. Thus this EP simultaneously points to the past and to the future, honoring where I started while representing the firstfruits of the newest music I’ve been writing.
Unfall II is a transitional release for me in another sense: it marks the end of this season of quick successions of studio releases and official new albums. Across these past four years, I released Unfall, two versions of D&C, three versions of Accidental Days, a live-in-studio album (Questions at Thirty), and now Unfall II (which was recorded in the same studio as D&C, QA30, and the bonus tracks for AD Deluxe). As I enter this new season of life, I will be stepping away from studio time for a while, at least for the entirety of 2024. It’s possible that my next official studio rock album might not release until 2026.
But I do not plan on slowing down in the meantime. If anything, things are gearing up like never before — but it’s happening in the context of my home studio, where alongside writing some of the most exciting music I’ve ever made, I’ve been investing much of my time, resources, and energy in developing my production skills. I never plan to replace real studios, experienced producers, or high quality instruments, yet as I’ve been learning, I’ve been able to create recordings of songs at standards higher than I ever thought I’d be capable of by myself. But I’m creating these new songs and homemade recordings for a dedicated, private audience; if you’d like to join, I’d love for you to check out friends.chasetremaine.com.