I'LL BE THERE FOR YOU

“It can’t rain all the time”

SONGWRITING

June 2012. I woke up at about 4 a.m. from a nightmare I don’t remember. I was going through a very difficult time back then because I was in love with a guy who treated me like shit, and the saddest part is that it wasn’t the first time that someone I was in love with treated me like that. It felt as if the story was repeating itself and I couldn’t do anything else but abandon myself into resignation. I felt empty and numb, and that’s how the first word came: “Nothingness”. With those 3 syllables came a melody and with that melody some rhymes. I remember that it somehow felt like pushing myself in a fake way, like being forced from that nothingness into the desire of having the willingness to keep going. I also remember that I almost shed a tear as I was writing the chorus and that’s how the lyrics of the chorus were conceived too. 

Then, while writing the second part of the song, I realized the need of turning the meaning of the song around, because it was too depressing and I needed to give a message of hope at the end. This is something that has happened with most of the songs in the album, that’s why the choruses have not the exact same lyrics, they change in order to show an evolution along with the structure of the song.

This was also one of the few songs on the album that was entirely written at a time with the guitar (Most of the other songs were constructed like a puzzle of diverse melodies that I had kept over the years).

PRODUCTION

I’ll be there for you was the first song that I showed to my producer when we first met. Though the idea and the structure of the song were pretty clear, some things needed to be changed. 

First of all, the demo of the song was recorded with the guitar and my voice only and there were not any bar measurements because I didn’t even know what that was when I began so, once I knew more about it, I tried to adapt the original structure with bars and that’s why this is the only song that doesn’t follow the traditional 4/4 structure.

Then, we also changed the original introductory arpeggio because it didn’t fit with the chords and, finally, I changed some parts of the lyrics: The “I can’t even feel my skin” line said originally something like “I am feeling mental suicidal” and the “I’ll be there for you” line said, “I’m here for you”. It just felt too depressive and self-focused so that’s why I changed the meaning of the second part of the song, in which I am speaking to some other person because, although the song is about my inner traumas and how not everything depends on oneself’s attitude, I wanted to transmit this idea that you can turn your feelings and thoughts around and try to help other people who have been through the same similar stuff that you once were. This is what the song is about: forgiveness and helping other people.

Musically, we added some curious instruments in this one: The pizzicato part and the theremin at the end were in honor of two of my favorite songs: Lo Bueno Queda by Ainhoa (the song of my life) and A song to say goodbye by Placebo. I personally love the unique touch these instruments give to the song.