Released 2012 Genre Indie pop Writer(s) Soko | Recorded 2012 Length 2:41 Producer(s) Soko, Fritz Michaud | |
"We Might Be Dead by Tomorrow" is a song by French singer Soko, from her studio album I Thought I Was an Alien. The track began to chart in 2014, thanks to the amount of views of the viral YouTube video "First Kiss", which the song features in.
Contents
Production and composition
"We Might Be Dead by Tomorrow" was inspired by the death of Soko's father when she was five years old. According to her, "I think it affected my and brother's lives in such a way that we are absolute lovers of life. I get so attached, so quickly because I have this extremely high consciousness of death, that it's just around the corner. So I hold on to every bit of love I can get." She said the song was "calling people out on being even more loving, and stop all the "I'm too busy for a relationship" talk, and selfish things of that kind, just because they are scared to be vulnerable and to love" and "about embracing love as the most grandiose thing in life." She claimed of crying throughout the song's writing process.
Soko wrote and produced "We Might Be Dead by Tomorrow", with additional production from Fritz Michaud. The track's instrumentation consists of a guitar, soft violin and Soko's vocals. On the night she wrote the song, she called Yeti Beats for a session, recording the vocals and guitar at the same time in two takes. She later asked her friend Indiana to perform the violin, and "wanted her to play a lot of harmonics because I think they sound like crying whales, and I find it to be the saddest and most beautiful comforting sound ever." The session lasted for only a few hours, and was "the easiest studio day ever". The track was later mixed by Bob Clearmountain, and finally mastered by Dave Cooley and Mandy Parnell.
Commercial performance
In 2014, "We Might Be Dead by Tomorrow" topped both the United States' Billboard Streaming Songs and Rock Streaming Songs chart, with 11.5 million streams. 99% of the streams came from the viral YouTube video "First Kiss" that included the track. The same week, the song debuted at number 9 on the country's Hot 100 chart, with 96% of the point coming from the streams, and was download 10,000 times in addition. It was 2014's first top 10 Hot 100 debut, the first top 10 debut for an artist or band's first entry since Ariana Grande's "The Way", and the highest arrival for a new act since the song "Harlem Shake" by Baauer. "We Might Be Dead by Tomorrow" dropped off the Billboard Hot 100 the following week, making it the highest charting song that was only on the Hot 100 for one week in the history of the chart, and ranks as the biggest drop-out of the chart's archive. Other US Billboard charts that it debuted on include Hot Rock Songs at number 3, Rock Digital Songs at number 26, and Alternative Digital Songs at number 24. In other countries, it launched at number 51 in Austria, number 39 in the Belgian territory of Wallonia, 66 on the Hot Canadian Digital Songs chart, 72 in Switzerland, and 18 on the UK Indie Chart.
Live performances
In December 2013, Soko performed "We Might Be Dead by Tomorrow" on the show Last Call with Carson Daly.