Track-by-Track: Lift The Curse Succinctly Summarize ‘Suffer & Survive’

Now, just a little over the year since their formation, Lift The Curse are set to unveil their debut full-length LP, Suffer & Survive. The duo (whom we spoke to earlier this year for Tattoo Talk) has impressively put out multiple singles, and now this new album, since they first got together last April, a stellar streak of success at a time when most acts are still trying to find their sound. Their brand of emo-influenced alternative rock has really caught on with a larger audience, with each successive single reaching more and more ears. They recently released “The Debt, ” their biggest song to date, racking up over 120,000 streams since its release.

Conjoining the talents of Jon Yadon Jr. and Ryan Hegefeld, they were previously two-thirds of TrineATX, a band that saw some solid success across their native Texas. So, this musical chemistry has been growing and developing for many years now, which helped them to work faster and more productively than most acts just starting. Pounding riffs, slick melodies, and ruthless breakdowns are the name of the game with Lift The Curse, and there’s plenty of all of that to enjoy on this stellar new record.

With Suffer & Survive dropping today, Yadon Jr. and Hegefeld join us for an exclusive, in-depth, and detailed track-by-track rundown of the writing and recording process and how each song took shape.

1. “Suffer”

Jon Yadon Jr.: “A lot of my favourite albums of all time have super cool instrumental intros and interludes. I was really excited to do one for this album. It came together real quick and super organically. We felt it flowed into ‘Tidal Wave’ nicely.”

2. “Tidal Wave”

Yadon Jr.: “I wrote the ‘Tidal Wave’ intro riff/lead for a weekly riff challenge that I do almost every week (shoutout to Ola Englund’s amazing YouTube channel!). This is also the second song in LTC history in which Ryan has a guitar solo! ‘Believe’ on our first album is the other one. I’m always trying to get him to do more (laughs).”

3. “Closing The Wound”

Ryan Hegefeld: “‘Closing the Wound’ is about forcing the door shut on a bad situation. Stopping the bleeding so healing can begin. Shooting the music video for this one was incredible. My lifelong best friend Keller and his wife Sarah own an old Victorian-style home where we ahoy the video. The vibe of house matched the vibe of the song perfectly. So much fun.”

Yadon Jr.: “I remember first hearing Ryan’s initial idea of the intro, creepy clean guitar notes and being so excited! It reminded me a little of Korn, who was my first favourite band and still one of my faves to this day. This song is one of my favourites that we’ve done so far. It’s got a little bit of everything that we do.”

Lift The Curse ‘Suffer and Survive’ album artwork

4. “The Things We Don’t Say”

Hegefeld: “A lot of times, people aren’t true to themselves and don’t speak their mind when it matters most. I include myself in this big time. Find the courage to be yourself. This is another one where the lyrics are definitely see-through.”

Yadon Jr.: “When we were writing this album, we got to a point where we stated what types of songs we wanted. We wanted to make sure we had one with a major/happy kind of feel. ‘The Things We Don’t Say’ was that song. We started with the minor verse into the more major, almost pop-punk kind of chorus. By the time we got to the post-solo section, we knew a key change-up was a must!”

5. “Fight (Like It’s Your Last)”

Yadon Jr.: “Huge shoutout to our friend Evan for letting us shoot the music video for this song in an awesome airplane hangar in Texas! Fun fact: Ryan played the intro of this song on the set of a music video for our last band. We’ve been sitting on this song for a while.”

6. “Love Wins”

Yadon Jr.: “‘Love Wins’ is probably the closest thing we have to a ballad on the album (even though I still don’t feel like it, but we’ll let you decide (laughs)). I love Ryan’s lyrical message with lines like, ‘Maybe we can find ourselves by lifting those who fall. Live with all your heart. Love wins, after all.’ An LTC feel-good song for sure!”

7. “Bring The Noise”

Yadon Jr.: “This song started from a video Ryan sent me a video of him singing the ‘Bring The Noise’ repeat vocal part in his car. This song went through the most iterations compared to other album songs. It took us a little longer to make it feel right for us. We actually got to write most of this song in person together on the same day that we shot the music videos for ‘The Things We Don’t Say’ and ‘(I Just) Died In Your Arms.’ Ryan had his electronic drum set, and I plugged my guitar into his mobile recording setup, and we jammed on the first version of the main riff, chorus, and bridge sections of the song.”

8. “Mercy (Kill Me Like You Mean It)”

Yadon Jr.: “Ryan and I would ask each other which song was our darkhorse throughout the album process, and ‘Mercy’ was one of mine. I really love the way it turned out. It’s also in 6/8 timing which we hadn’t done in an LTC song yet. Ryan did some awesome strings/synth work in this song, especially over the heavy riff in the middle of the song.”

9. “Refuse To Be Hopeless”

Yadon Jr.: “We like to experiment with lower guitar tunings sometimes (normally, we both are in Drop C tuning), so this one is the lowest we’ve done so far in Drop G. It’s always fun delving into the heavy, dark, and feel territory. I’m a huge fan of Ryan’s screams in this song too!”

10. “(I Just) Died In Your Arms”

Hegefeld: “I recall hearing this song when I was younger and loving that chorus melody. We always talk about different songs we want to cover, but this one quickly got to the front of the line. It had the melodic tendencies we love, but also had so much room for us to do our rhythm thing to it.”

Yadon Jr.: “We have a very long list of songs we want to cover eventually, and this song has been on the list for quite some time. We were super excited to finally do our own version of such a classic song.”

11. “Devil With Blue Eyes”

Hegefeld: “Jon and I actually started writing this song while we were in the same room, which is super rare. We had the music portion down and recorded for over a year, and when we listened back after some time, it’s both agreed to get it on the album. These lyrics just fell onto the page. I had no idea what to write about, and that happens sometimes where there’s no plan. And then you get done and find out what the song is about. If you listen, I think they are self-explanatory.”

Yadon Jr.: “I totally second what Ryan said. We wrote the musical backbone of this song at his old house, and it came together super easy and quickly. I was floored when I first heard Ryan’s chorus for this song. Love the melody and rhythm he chose, especially on lines like, ‘You live a life of secrets.’ Hope y’all dig it too!”

12. “Kingsbury” (Acoustic Version)

Hegefeld: “This one almost missed the bus, if you know what I mean. Jon and I both wanted to do an acoustic song, but the inspiration for one wasn’t there for a while. Jon sent me this guitar idea a few weeks before finalizing the album, and then it was super organic to get this one on this album. The meaning behind the song is about the place where I grew up. A ranch in Texas that has my whole heart forever. I luckily called it home for a long time. I wrote hundreds of songs there, grew up deer hunting, made amazing memories with friends and family. Ultimately it’s my idea of heaven. My place.”

13. “Artificial”

Hegefeld: “‘Artificial’ is a song with the message to stop wasting time on bad relationships. If it’s not there, it’s not there.”

14. “Survive”

Yadon Jr.: “We wanted to have a second instrumental interlude to the be the ‘Survive’ part of Suffer & Survive. We decided to do it before the last song, ‘Anxiety,’ so we started it in the same key of ‘Artificial’ in C, then modulates to G to set the stage for ‘Anxiety.’”

15. “Anxiety”

Hegefeld: “This is a really personal one for me. Lyrically it wrote itself and very quickly too. It is ultimately about life’s struggles and hardships but a self-reminder to not give up. It’s ok to be down just make sure you’re fighting to get back up.”

Yadon Jr.: “I’m so glad this song finally made it out! We’ve been waiting for the right time to release this one, and this is the perfect time. I remember first hearing Ryan’s chorus, and it gave me goosebumps immediately. It’s super raw and real. Hits you in your core. Straight from the heart.”