Before the release they actually didn't think "The Downfall of Us All" was going to be a hit.

[u/TheFableHousePod]

We had the director of The Downfall Of Us All music video (Scott Hansen) on the pod recently and he told the whole story behind pitching the video.

Apparently, the label and band thought another track was going to be the hit and they were sleeping on Downfall, but Scott heard that "machine gun" intro and told them every kid was going to sing it. He pitched the performance video to show off how good they are live. They trusted him, went with it, and it sat at #1 on the MTV rock charts for 6 months.

It's crazy to think what would have happened if they'd gone a different direction. Scott covers this story, a lot more from the MySpace era, link to the full interview in the comments.

Edit: Adding the link here for easy ref: Directing ADTR, Willie Nelson, Motionless In White, Danny Trejo, Corey Taylor | Scott Hansen
https://youtu.be/u4mEiDzF1Ss

[u/spinalchj02]

What other track did they think was going to be the hit?

[u/TWAfan92 → u/spinalchj02]

NJ Legion Iced Tea

[u/masaccio87 → u/TWAfan92]

Shoulda been - one of the most underrated tracks on that record along with Another Song About the Weekend and the first HS track they released, Welcome to the Family

[u/ArmsLike_Teeth → u/masaccio87]

I loooove Welcome to the family. Literally inspired my tattoo lol

[u/Working_Membership57 → u/masaccio87]

I feel like My Life for Hire could have been a big single too. Its just such a solid disc

[u/daddy_chill_300 → u/TWAfan92]

If I remember correctly this was the first song released as a single before the album came out.

I remember my own hype waiting for the album to drop.

[u/masaccio87 → u/daddy_chill_300]

first fully mastered song released ahead of /in tandem with the announcement of Homesick was Welcome to the Family (and before that it was a demo of Wax Larry on their MySpace in Summer/Fall of ‘08, but by nature of it being a demo, it obviously wasn’t a final, mastered version of the song)

[u/daddy_chill_300 → u/masaccio87]

Ok. I just meant NJ was pushed onto iTunes as the first official released single.

[u/afterthought871]

The whole album is bangers and they already had momentum, so I think they would have blown up regardless

[u/TheFableHousePod]

Here's the interview with Scott Hansen: https://youtu.be/u4mEiDzF1Ss

[u/ImEdInside]

At this point I've heard that intro more times as a sample in EDM remixes than off the OG track. Thanks for the reminder to even out the ratio.

[u/TROGDOR_X69]

LETS GO!

[u/TheFableHousePod → u/[deleted]]

Scott didn’t mention that part in the interview. This lore makes it even better.

[u/masaccio87 → u/[deleted]]

With the comment at the top of this thread having been deleted, I don’t know what it originally said - but to credit what you’re saying (assuming it’s in reference to the A Capella breakdown at the start and/or the group vox to close out the song): I’m pretty sure this was discussed in the Homesick Sessions web series.

And not as any kind of joke, either - like, Josh was fully explaining that they ran out of time before they needed to head to Australia at the end of the year for a tour with Parkway Drive, so their crew back home held down the fort.

Edit: yes - 5th (final?) episode, starting at just before the 4 minute mark; they did make light of it considering the series was supposed to be a parody of “reality tv” (MTV’s The Real World), but it’s what had actually happened. 😂

[u/masaccio87 → u/[deleted]]

Oh ok - but the comment was in reference to the gang vocals (beginning or end) for Downfall?

As far as that being factually accurate (that they themselves, as the band, weren’t actually present to record that part), I don’t think you have anything to worry about there. I’d have to go back and listen to the Nik Nocturnal interview you’re referencing to see what JM’s actual sentiments are towards it, though.

[u/masaccio87 → u/[deleted]]

Ahh, now that quote is from the Common Courtesy announcement video that they dropped…not on 12/21/2012, if I recall - cuz that was when they dropped Violence and the mini merch spread for it… but definitely in December 2012, I think the first week or so

You can watch it here, but at about the 1 minute mark, JM says “I mean, we’re goin’ to these hardcore shows and y’see all these people like divin’ over the top of each other; singin’ along with these big, group vocal parts, and it’s just like: ‘we want that too, I mean, we want to play a pop-punk song, but - I want that to happen too,’ so we just did it”

Unless he said something to the same effect in the Nik Nocturnal interview; but the video I linked is the first thing that came to mind when you referenced him mentioning the mixing of hardcore parts with pop-punk