Eli Young Band Channel Aggression in ‘Fingerprints’ Title Track
Eli Young Band’s new album Fingerprints is loaded with personal content, but perhaps no song reveals more feeling — or heartbreaking aggression — than the album’s title track.
"You show back up / I let you in every time / You end up running / Like you're running from the scene of a crime / You know how to make your, make your mark / You know how to take a, take a heart / Break it all to pieces / Burn it with a touch / You're gonna leave and leave nothing but fingerprints."
Penned by EYB members Mike Eli and James Young (with Ross Copperman and Josh Osborne), it was Eli who originally spawned the idea for the song.
“That idea was sitting in the notes section of my phone for a long time,” Eli, lead singer of Eli Young Band, tells Taste of Country. “The whole idea of she left nothing but fingerprints, kind of like on your heart or on your soul and your life. She’d obviously been there, kind of idea. Then when we started getting into it, it was about finding that aggression where you’re kind of just a little bit ticked off; about that she can’t just leave. She’s got to leave the impression and leave the fingerprints behind.”
Besides the obvious broken love story that lies on the surface, EYB guitarist James Young expands on the song, noting that it's a tribute to all those who have affected their lives.
“People come and go in your life and they leave their mark in different ways,” Young says, “So we were just trying to figure out a way to write that and I think we accomplished what we were headed to do there. It encapsulates the people that have come in and out of our lives. Being in the band for 17 years, there’s a lot of hands-on, behind-the-scenes that make this band work and so that’s kind of a tribute to that as well.”
Five songs from Fingerprints (released June 16) debut on streaming services before its official street date, with “Saltwater Gospel” and “Skin & Bones” as radio singles. “Fingerprints” was one of the songs released early via streaming, but has yet to be announced as an official single.
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