"Escalates" by Falling Up, Saturday, July 23, 2022

"Escalates" is the second single from Falling Up's debut record, Crashings. All three of the band's singles from Crashings, "Broken Heart," "Escalates," "Bittersweet"

 topped Christian Rock Radio charts. Falling Up signed to BEC Recordings because of industry hype from the band Kutless, who came from the same suburb of Portland, Oregon as Falling Up. Working with the same producer, Aaron Sprinkle, Falling Up was set to be the next big Christian Rock band.

I CAN'T FIND IT, BUT MAYBE I'LL COPE.  I've talked about the sonic production on Crashings and how I think that it is perhaps on of Aaron Sprinkle's best feats of production despite the record never coming up in the podcast conversations I've heard with Sprinkle. I've speculated that there's an interesting, perhaps an uncomfortable, story about Falling Up's tenure in the Tooth & Nail universe. Sprinkle and the band maintain high-tempo sonic energy through most of the record, blending elements of styles of the day, whether nu-metal, pop, electronica, even hip-hop. The scream on "Escalates" muted under a symphonic-sounding synth pad and lead singer  Jessy Ribordy's vocalization is just one example of how rock influences pop and vice versa on this record. There is a kind of Northwest rainy forest tone that Sprinkle uses in several records, including the next year's debut LP by Acceptance, Phantoms. The crystal-clear production on Crashings makes the record a classic--from the synth loops to the driving drumbeat forcing Ribordy to sing fast. 

LIFE HAS BEEN A PLACE WHERE I'VE WANDERED. Years later, in an interview with the JesusFreaksHideout Podcast, Jessy Ribordy would claim that "Escalates" was written "phonetically" and that it has "a little bit of meaning spiritually, but it's not what people think. They think it's a very worshipful song, but it's not." Phonetic songwriting is a technique when a singer adds "dummy lyrics" to a melody, often in place of the finished product. Occasionally, phonetic songs make it to the record. Falling Up was called a modern worship band when they debuted, perhaps because of their association with Kutless or perhaps because they were one of the few bands that used "Jesus" and "God" in their lyrics on occasion. The band's first to records also included a Bible verse to go with each song. "Escalates" has two verses: 1 Peter 2:11 and Philippians 1:21, both of which deal with "the war with the flesh." The song talks about "finding something that's missing" and trying to cope without it. In the video, Ribordy tries to enter a rundown Victorian house, but unable to enter finds a box in a crevice beneath the house. The box contains some memorabilia, but by the end of the video, he only takes a blue marble from the box. The Victorian house would be a symbol in the band's second album Dawn Escapes and there's probably a world of meaning to it, but to my knowledge Ribordy hasn't shared its significance. To me, in my late teens and early 20s reminded me of searching through my childhood to find something I overlooked. It's impossible to go back, but we can revisit parts of our past and take back lessons to help us with a current problem. 

Read “Escalates” by Falling Up on Genius