Well, the song they brought in was ‘See You After, Babe’, something Andrew had written in light of his girlfriend getting disfigured. It was catchy and upbeat, but unlike anything the band had recorded for us. They handed us the lyrics, and we were taken aback by how odd they were. I’ve been holding onto a copy of them for years now:
[Verse 1]
I just wanted to be a big name
For you.
But I got caught up in this craziness
Without you.
We made a deal with him,
He said he’d rise us up
In exchange for something small.
[Chorus]
But he took your… (x3)
[Verse 2]
At first it was just little things.
And then it came to this.
I didn’t think he’d take something
That I’d actually miss.
[Chorus]
[Bridge]
It wasn’t an accident.
I’m so sorry.
I’ll see you after, babe.
[Chorus]
Depressing stuff, yeah? At the studio we thought so, too. Plus, the chorus was four words and an incomplete sentence that went off into a four-note riff, so we all doubted its potential.
But we still recorded the entire song, mastered it, and sent it to the higher-ups who loved it and thought it’d be a big hit.
It went out to quite a number of radio stations, who played it like they would any other single. After a week, DJs asked us to interview the band, but Symmetry Icon wanted nothing to do with the press.
