"Red Line" is the fourth track from DEC3's self-titled debut album. The band was forced to release the song as the first single when their guitarist, Jon Haber, was asked to be interviewed on Fox News. They created a video for the song just for that occasion.
The song was inspired by the Syrian Civil War. DEC3's primary songwriter, Jon Haber, revealed in our interview with him why he chose that controversial topic. "When I wrote this song, recorded it, and it was mixed, no one was paying attention to the situation over there," he said. "I put myself in the shoes of a civilian living there who's going through all this craziness."
The lyrics mention real events that happened during the Syrian Uprising, such as chemical weapons like gas being used to kill innocent children by the President of Syria, Bashar al-Assad. Jon Haber watched the news day-to-day to help write the words for the tune, "There's a lot of material out there in order to write these lyrics. Just by watching and following the news, I was able to weave a story out of what I was seeing."
The song was written one year before the United States invaded Syria in September of 2014. The title was taken from a quotation from the President of the United States, Barack Obama, and the middle and ending of the song features sound bites from him. The civilian telling the story is upset and frustrated with Obama because he didn't do anything to help at the time even though he said he would.
"We said we were going to do something and we didn't do anything. The one last hope that someone had over there at that time was that somebody was going to come and help get them out of this dictator's grip," explained Haber.
Jon Haber wrote the guitar riff for the chorus of the song in 2010 and then wrote the rest of it about three years later over the course of one weekend.
The only song Jon Haber did not play bass on the album was "Red Line." Zach Cooper from the progressive rock band, Coheed and Cambria, contributed bass on the song. DEC3's drummer, Mike Kalajian, used to be in a group with Cooper so they enlisted his help when he was in town.
The last thing added to the song was the piano part that was played by Shane Keister from Five for Fighting, who is known for piano-based rock. Haber described his intention for that section, saying, "It's like a Bach fugue, which I wanted specifically something in that style juxtaposed against the rest of the music."
"We're All Friends" from DEC3's debut self-titled album is the fifth track on it. The song is about Facebook and the character in it portrays the social media obsessed generation well. DEC3's guitarist and songwriter, Jon Haber, explained in our interview why he wrote a tune about that topic. "I wanted to come up with something a little bit different than these straight love songs all the time," he said.
The lyrics describe the mundane tasks that people feel the need to share on Facebook such as waking up, brushing your teeth, and posting pictures of your meal while on a date. "I made the song kind of humorous, tongue-in-cheek, but really sarcastic," revealed Haber. "He's the same as everybody else so it's self-deprecating as well and that's why it works. He's not better than anybody else in the song. He is everybody else."
Jon Haber put his musical aspirations on hold at the age of 24 to open his own successful New York instrument retail chain, Alto Music. After 25 years of being away, Haber decided that it was time to return to being a guitarist in a band. Despite the fact that Haber was not performing all those years, he was still writing songs. One day in February of 2013, Haber had the urge to gather all the tunes to properly record them, and, ultimately, marking the beginning of the DEC3 project.
In our interview, Haber recalled why he wanted to make the album: "I figured that I had all these great songs, ones that I really like and thought that people will like them, too. I went about getting that together and as I started doing it, I started writing and I became very prolific. So most of the songs on the record are new ones - eight of the 12 are new ones that I'd written."
Jon Haber figured that he could play most of the instruments and produce the album himself. Chris Saulpaugh, who Haber has collaborated with on all his songs throughout the years, covered the vocal duties. Haber needed a drummer so the final piece to the puzzle was enlisting the help of his co-worker and friend, Mike Kalajian. Haber named the project DEC3 after realizing that all three men were born in different decades.
"Sunshine" is the seventh track on DEC3's debut self-titled album and one of the oldest songs on it. Jon Haber explained in our interview his intention for the tune, saying: "It was one of the ones that when I started this project I said that I was going to re-do."
Chris Saulpaugh recorded the vocals for it in 2000 and re-did some parts for the new version. "We popped in six vocal lines that I changed a few things lyrically but you can't even tell," revealed Haber.
Haber unveiled to us the true meaning of this summer jam: "Everybody has their thing that helps them get through the day, be it religion, drugs, booze, or yoga. But, of all the things, the best thing is just love."
"Free My Love" is the tenth track on DEC3's 2014 debut self-titled album. It was written by DEC3's primary songwriter, Jon Haber . Even though Haber walked away from performing at the age of 24 to open his successful New York instrument retail chain, Alto Music, he never stopped writing songs.
"Free My Love" was the first tune that Haber and longtime vocal collaborator, Chris Saulpaugh, worked on together in 1997. When Haber decided to start the DEC3 project in February of 2013, "Free My Love" was one of the old songs that Haber re-did for the album. He even changed the lyrics and title. Haber only kept a couple of parts and a guitar solo from the original recording.
In our interview with Haber, he explained the story happening in the song. "Basically, the guy had two loves in his life: his girl and then drugs or alcohol. The guy's in jail and that's the imagery I'm trying to portray," he said.
It is a dark tune displaying that the man made the wrong choice between his loves, but he would still make that same choice again despite the outcome.
