Track-By-Track: A Rocket To The Moon

Frontman NICK SANTINO walks us through every track of A ROCKET TO THE MOON’s On Your Side.




On Your Side


Annabelle

“’Annabelle’ is an energetic song about a girl who is all about herself and not about you at all. You can’t stand her and are better off without her. This song was inspired by seeing girls treat their boyfriends like crap in public. This one is about a girl who has two personalities: one that she shows in front of her friends and one for behind closed doors. It’s also a pretty cool name for this character because when I think of the name ‘Annabelle,’ I picture a sweet, little southern belle. But not this Annabelle.”



Mr Right

“This is your perfect Disney fairy tale song. The lyrics speak for this song pretty clearly. It’s about a couple that consists of one deadbeat, lowlife boyfriend and one all-star, top-of-the-line girlfriend. The boyfriend doesn’t drive and needs to take the bus to get around. He doesn’t work or go to school. Yet his girlfriend is the complete opposite, which makes all of her friends wonder what she is doing with this guy. The answer to that riddle is one word: love. Even though these two don’t seem like a perfect match at first glance, they are head-over-heels for each other and the guy will shower his lover with anything she needs–that he can afford.”



She’s Killing Me

“This song is kind of a mixture between ‘Annabelle’ and ‘Mr. Right.’ It’s about having a girlfriend who you’re absolutely in love with, but she is the lazy, spoiled one, and for some reason, even though she drives you nuts, you can’t get enough of her. She’s your pride and joy. The tag line of this song says it all: ‘I love her half to death, but she’s killing me.’ I’m sure everyone with a significant other knows this feeling of having someone who you adore, but who does little things that drive you nuts. But, hey, it’s love right?”



On A Lonely Night

“This song is your basic Grease-type romance squeezed into three minutes and eight seconds. It’s about meeting someone when you are a teenager over the summer and having that summer love. Then, after growing up and years of not seeing that person, you realize the attraction is still there. We had our good friend Caitlyn Harnett sing on this song which makes for the perfect love song.”



Dakota

“’Dakota’ is just an all-around, cute love song. It’s about love at first sight and holding onto that love. We recorded this song for On Your Side because we wanted it to get the attention it didn’t get from [the 2008 EP] Greetings From…. Justin [Richards, guitar] and I started writing this song on a Greyhound bus going from L.A to Phoenix. We thought the name Dakota was an awesome, unique name. And no, it’s not about Dakota Fanning.”



Life Of The Party

“This song is about an a party girl–a lonely girl who starves for attention and has some hungry mouths to feed. (Yes, that was a The Receiving End Of Sirens reference). The song is about a girl who loves the word "love" and will do anything to tell people she is in it. And what’s a good way to get back at someone who plays with your heart? Write a song about how this person will regret ever meeting you. Don’t let the dance beat and ‘80s-sounding chorus confuse you: I wouldn’t want to be the person this song is about.”



Like We Used To

“’Like We Used To’ is my favorite song on On Your Side and it almost didn’t make the record. We had the whole album done and ready to go, and then we cut a song last minute and decided we wanted a ballad that would make your mother cry. Justin and I wrote this song in the back of our van in about 45 minutes after we played a show in Michigan. Then we flew out to Los Angeles the next day to record it. This song made me a little teary eyed after hearing the final mix. It’s about a break-up, just like every song that isn’t about love. But this song ends in a happy way. It’s about being dumped and your significant other moving on really fast and finding someone new. At first, you are super-bitter and upset about it, and then you realize that she is happy and better off without you. The line, ‘Can you promise me if this one’s right, don’t throw it all away’ says it all. This song will make you cry tears of sadness and tears of joy.”



Where Did You Go?

“This is about someone who is sick of the life they live and think they would be better off moving to another part of the country such as L.A. (like in this song). It’s about someone dropping everything they had back home–family, friends, lovers, pets and whoever else–and starting a new life in California. You don’t really know why they took off like they did, so you start to feel a little self-conscious about it and that maybe it was something you did or said. So you think to yourself, ‘Only if I had more time.’ No sense in beating yourself up over someone like this. It never would have worked out anyway.”



Sometimes

“This song isn’t literally about finding someone on the side of the road and bringing them into some shelter like the first verse kind of implies. It’s about helping someone find who they really are–helping them when they need it the most and seeing through lies to dig deep and realize who they really are. Our dear friend Brandon [Wronski, vocals] from Eye Alaska appears on this and adds a whole other vibe to this funky, electronic-driven song. Everybody needs somebody sometimes.”



Baby Blue Eyes

“This is your cute, cliché love song. It’s about doing everything for somebody who you really care about and truly love. Take pride in the one you love the most. Show them off like a medal of honor and don’t be embarrassed of who they are. This was the first song we wrote for this record, and we tried to put a little country-pop twang into it. It’s one of my favorites.”



Give A Damn

“This should’ve been played in the late ‘90s. It’s about your dream girl, but only if she knew you existed. For some reason, you decide you want to fall for this girl who is the opposite of what you would normally be attracted to–whether she is the captain of her cheerleading squad or the captain of the chess team. You wish she saw you like every other person in her life that she’s close to. She has a wild side that you aren’t used to, but you’d change that just for the chance to be with her for a minute. But what do you know? She doesn’t give a damn.”



On Your Side

“I was flying home from Phoenix and the line, ‘My love will always be on your side’ went through my head. I wrote it down in my notebook and then worked it into a melody. The original chorus was just ‘My love is on your side, I know how to treat you right, I’ll never leave you because you know that my love is on your side.’ Kinda cheesy. This song is about knowing every detail about the person you love the most–remembering the first time you met and reminding them that you will always love them. In other words, my love is on your side!”

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