Youth Of A Nation Higher Alive Boom P.O.D.

Youth Of A Nation Album: Satellite (2001) released on September 11, 2001
Higher Album: Murdered Love (2012)
Alive Album: Satellite (2001) released on September 11, 2001
Boom Album: Satellite (2001) released on September 11, 2001
by P.O.D. (Payable On Death)

Youth Of A Nation was inspired by the March 5, 2001 shootings at Santana High School in Santee, California, where 15-year-old Charles Williams walked into school with his father's gun and fired 30 shots, killing two students and wounding 13 others. The shooting was remarkably close to where P.O.D. was working that day, and inspired this song.

In our interview with lead singer Sonny Sandoval, he said: "When we were actually writing the record for Satellite, we were two blocks away from the Santee high school shootings. We had taken a break and went out for some coffee, and we see all the fire trucks and the police department and the helicopters and news. And we're like, something's going on. We turn on the TV and all of a sudden there's a young kid who has trapped everybody inside the school and he's shooting. Here we are, glued to the TV and we're literally two blocks away. All this is going down, and here we were supposed to write music. It kind of just set the tone for how we felt that day."

On April 20, 1999, two students at Columbine High School in Columbine, Colorado killed 13 people in a shooting spree at the school. P.O.D. stands for "Payable On Death," but that's a reflection of their Christian beliefs, and not a call for violence. The band spends a lot of time working with young people and trying to represent them in their music.

Sonny Sandoval told us: "We had always been a touring band and we had toured through Colorado, even when Columbine had happened, and we had an awesome underground following, even of kids in Colorado. So when we toured through Colorado, some of the kids that survived the Columbine shootings put on a fund raiser, so we've always been kind of involved in that. We're hanging out with young kids, we're talking with kids, and that was one of the things that was going on when we were touring so many years ago. So it had always been something that was on our shoulders.

And then when this happened it was like wow, what's going on with these kids? And it was like here it is, these are the youth of the nation. So it just sparked that whole story."

Guitarist Marcos Curiel said of Youth Of A Nation: "It's always been a topic on tour. I don't want to say it inspired us, but it gave us the motivation to write something. Well, when we were writing this record, we wanted to be secluded so we went to Santee, in East San Diego, where we had this 35x35 rehearsal studio. One day we were on our way to practice, and we saw all these cops, but we didn't know what was going on. Later we found out what had happened (The shooting). It was an emotional situation. The main control room in the studio has a TV, and we're watching the news on there, thinking, 'Man, this is a mess.' I'm the only one that doesn't have kids, but everybody was like, ' Dude, that could have been my kids in there,' or 'That could have been my sister.'"

Parts of Youth Of A Nation were recorded very quickly after the Santee shootings. Sandoval explained: "We had the title and we had the music. It was just this very drone like echo of this guitar. And that's just how we felt. And here we are having conversation and the title 'Youth of the Nation' came up, and then we kind of hummed out some ideas of the chorus. But the lyrics for the verses weren't written until we actually got into the studio and started to write out tracks. But I knew I was going to be telling the story of what we experienced and what happened. So it was more about this story of certain individuals, or just this kid who feels like he's lost in this world. The lyrics all came out once we were in the studio."

Paul Fedor directed the video for Youth Of A Nation, which follows a young man on a cross-country journey, where he brings other young folks into the fold. In the band scenes, the balls are covered with enlarged yearbook photos, some of them distorted.

The video has a positive vibe, with the youth of the nation coming together. Other directors pitched much darker storylines.

Murdered Love is the eighth studio album released on July 10, 2012. It debuted on the Billboard 200 at No. 17 with sales of over 16,000 in its first week in the U.S. Track 3 is Higher.

"Alive" is about not taking anything for granted, living each day as if it was your last. P.O.D. lead singer Sonny Sandoval, who wrote the lyrics said,: "We were recording in Valley Village, and I was going back home for the weekends to San Diego. So I'd literally leave late Friday night and then come back late Sunday night. And then hit the studio on Monday. But it was my turn to start laying down vocals. And my daughter was very young - she was not even one yet. And so here I was supposed to record the song 'Alive' on Monday, and I hadn't even finished the lyrics yet.

So it's a funny story. My wife's driving so I can sit and just kind of concentrate. I always know what I want to say, and I work better under pressure. So here we are, it's nighttime, we're driving late Sunday on the 405 freeway. It's dark, and from the traffic light, I look back and I look at my daughter. And I don't know if you have kids or not, but you always hear people say, 'He looks just like you,' and 'She looks just like you.' And like forever I never saw that. And everybody's like, 'Oh, she's the spitting image, she looks exactly like you.' And I just didn't see it, because it's just my little baby. And for some reason with the traffic light shining in, I look at her and for the first time I see myself in her. I can finally see it now. And it was like, wow. That was just the moment. That's almost completely what the song's about. For the very first time I see myself in my daughter. It was a beautiful moment. I see me."

Sonny Sandoval is a Christian who speaks openly about his faith. While this song was inspired by a specific incident in his life, he sees it as having a universal theme. Sandoval said, "It's just whatever moment that is for anybody. If I'm talking of faith, it has to do with my faith in God. We always keep it open for interpretation, because I never want to sound religious or preachy. It's kind of like a painting: 20 people can look at a piece of art and have 20 different interpretations. I believe it's supposed to speak to your soul. So the same thing with our music.

I've had kids come up to me and tell me what my songs mean to them, and I'm like Wow. You know what, you just spoke to me, because I'm blown away right now. That's amazing. But it's the way they heard it. It's their life, it's their situation. It could be one or two words, it could be a phrase."

P.O.D. writes their music first, and before they added lyrics to Alive, they referred to it as "Beautiful," since that's how the music made them feel. Sandoval wrote appropriately upbeat words to match the music.

Alive was the first single from P.O.D.'s album Satellite, which was released on September 11, 2001. Albums are traditionally released on Tuesdays, and the day of the World Trade Center attacks was a popular one for album releases.

The music video for Alive, directed by Francis Lawrence, depicts an accident on the Los Angeles freeway where a bus crashes into the protagonist's car, with the band playing nearby. Lawrence killed off the character, but was forced to bring him back to life when the label thought the original ending was too dark. The crew also encountered some real-life violence when a driver who was upset the freeway was closed for the shoot pulled a gun, but thankfully drove away. Lawrence is also a film director who helmed three of The Hunger Games movies.

P.O.D. lead singer Sonny Sandoval manages to rhyme "masses" with "Calabasas" (a suburb of Los Angeles) in "Boom" about the joys of traveling the world and spreading your message. Much of Sandoval's message is driven by his Christian faith, which is apparent in the lyrics, "Commit my life to rebirth, well respected, 'cause that's my word."

Sandoval shows a lot of swagger in "Boom", but he explained: "I love what I do, but a lot of this is just a facade. It comes down to us being human and loving one another and taking care of each other. There's so much deception that takes your focus off of just loving people and serving people. I've been on the red carpets, I've been on the private jets. Those are all nice moments and what have you. But at the same time, it all ends. I write music, I play music because some kid is listening. It's not to sell records."

"Boom" was the third single off the band's breakout album Satellite, which was released on September 11, 2001 released on September 11, 2001 released on September 11, 2001.

They almost always play "Boom" at their shows, and for many years, they used it as the opener.

Some of the movies to use "Boom" include Rollerball (2002), Grind (2003), and Biker Boyz (also 2003, this one used the Crystal Method Remix).