Finger Eleven is launching a U.S. tour Friday, September 1, in Madison, Wisconsin, to celebrate the release of the band’s Greatest Hits compilation, which, of course, features the 2007 hit “Paralyzer.”
“You play [‘Paralyzer’] at a live show and it definitely breathes some life into it just because of the enthusiasm,” frontman Scott Anderson tells ABC Audio. “It feels like a party when you break that song out.”
Before it became Finger Eleven’s signature song, “Paralyzer” presented something of a challenge to Anderson.
“When the guys first brought that music to me, I didn’t really know how to deal with it,” Anderson recalls. “It was like, ‘OK, you guys have written, like, a rock-disco song.'”
Since Anderson’s very much not a club person — “If you’ve ever seen me dance, you won’t forget it,” he quips — he decided to approach writing lyrics to “Paralyzer” from the perspective of how he’d truly feel if he found himself at a club: annoyed and uncomfortable.
“It was important for me to not act like this poser that goes to clubs all the time,” Anderson shares. “That would be a weird existence, where the song’s a success and it’s like, ‘Oh yeah, here’s that guy that loves clubs,’ and then I just gotta run around with a feather boa all the time … That’d be a tough act to keep up.”
Even after 15 years of singing about wishing that a club will close in three weeks to that aforementioned rock-disco riff, Anderson still enjoys performing “Paralyzer.”
“It’s a song that, it kinda won’t quit,” he says. “I do love it. I’m not sick of it, and I still like to play it live.”
Finger Eleven’s Greatest Hits is out now.
Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
