A project called Divorced Dad Rock was missing something, and Stephen Paul decided it was dad jokes. The Indiana novelist and songwriter, who releases music as D.D.R., put out “Fire at Will” on September 30th, building the whole song around its title and a man unlucky enough to be named Will. His day spirals through run-ins with police, robbers, baseball players and a military firing range, all set to driving guitars, powerful drums and a big melodic chorus in an ’80s-inspired hard rock style.
It opens the project’s second chapter, following the relationships, betrayal, grief and recovery of Blinded By the Blonde: Chapter One, and this time humor takes the lead. The single was recorded through Musiversal with professional session players, among them Joe Bills on lead vocals, Breno Machado on guitars, and Christiano Galvão on drums. Paul oversaw production, though by his own account he mostly stayed out of the professionals’ way.
The song came to life through a process of brainstorming with AI-generated demos, but it’s just to stimulate the creative process, and the final version is fully human recorded. That’s an interesting gray area for using AI, because how different is it from using a preset on a drum machine to inspire the drummer to play a groove in their own way? It’s just a jumping-off point. Human execution is what matters when it comes to art, and here the execution is peak divorced dad rock, pun intended.
The other half of the joke is the video. It’s done in a comic-book style with illustrated scenes, background gags, and a fourth-wall break where Will questions the songwriter responsible for his predicament. According to the press materials, the idea is to add jokes rather than just repeat the lyrics on screen.
Paul’s background as a novelist shows in how the song is put together, as a story that escalates rather than a single mood. A premise this silly only works if the storytelling keeps its footing. Whether Will ever makes it home to feed his cat is left for the listener to find out.
