Singled Out: Final Gravity's The Deep

01-21-2025

Los Angeles-based hard rockers Final Gravity recently released their new album "Stormchaser" and to celebrate we asked them to tell us about the track "The Deep". Here is the story:

In Final Gravity, some songs are brought to the other band members fully-formed (or at least in an advanced state of ideation). In other cases, one member writes the lyrics and another writes most of the music. Occasionally, songs sort of spontaneously form. Our new single, "The Deep" is one of those.

We were in our studio/rehearsal space, jamming ideas when Charles (bass) spontaneously came up with the first version of the opening riff. Shortly thereafter, Mike (guitar) wrote the chorus, and John (drums) came up with some interesting rhythms that inspired new song sections. Before you know it, we had all contributed substantially and the song was whipped into shape pretty quickly. Melissa (vocals) brought in lyrics about positivity and self-awakening; Charles helped out with a few phrases but the words you hear in the final version are mostly hers.

When we went to producer Rich Mouser with our demos, he gravitated towards "The Deep"; he said it had a bit of an early-period Rush vibe. Rich made a key contribution to the arrangement by altering that opening riff slightly, adding a single chromatic passing tone to it that really made it pop. It reminds us ever-so-slightly of Soundgarden's "Badmotorfinger" era, though there is no overt resemblance. Rich also brought a Queen "Keep Yourself Alive" vibe to the end of the second verse.

With the verses being pretty harmonically static, the pre-chorus opens up a bit before a whole new palette is revealed in the chorus. We're especially fond of how it deviates from stock chord progressions pretty significantly but still doesn't sound too out-there, despite ending on a different chord than the key tonic. The song turned out to be a punchy hard rocker that we all really love to play and we've gotten good feedback on it as well, so it's safe to say "The Deep" will be in our live setlist on a permanent basis.

Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen and watch for yourself below and learn more here

[Editor note - The band's producer Rich Mouser lost his home/studio in the recent and ongoing Southern California wildfires. A Go Fund Me has been put up by his daughter here]