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Those who were in attendance at the UNA football game against West

Alabama were some of the first people to get to here a new song by

Stratus Muse Productions.

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The song is titled “Uncaged” and is a tribute to UNA athletics,

especially the Lions football team. 

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Jeff Addison, Corey Lawson, Mark Sanchez and Justin Rose

collaborated on the project. Lawson and Sanchez founded Stratus

Muse Productions, which wrote, performed and produced the song

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Addison then sought to write a new song for UNA, one that could

replace “Purple Rain” at the end of games. He enlisted the help of

his old college buddy, Corey, in order to help him create the

song.

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“I knew Corey at UNA,” said Addison. “Corey did a lot of the score

for our student films. I needed him to do the music because he’s

one of the best in this area by far. It was my idea, but they were

more on the music and I was more on the sports.” 

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By they, he meant Lawson and Sanchez. Lawson partnered with

Sanchez, a man whom he had known for years and had played in

different bands with, to form Stratus Muse Productions. 

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“We come from a lot of different backgrounds,” said Sanchez. “We

play in a band right now called Days Distance and a lot of the guys

are from Florence.” 

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Stratus Muse Productions is a team of musicians, producers, and

media gurus set out to provide creative services for any and all

media purposes, according to their website.

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Addison and Lawson both graduated from UNA a few years ago. Addison

said that he is a huge sports fan who enjoys watching football,

including here at UNA. 

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The Lions use the phrase “Purple Reign” to describe their athletic

tradition, and Prince’s song “Purple Rain” is played after UNA’s

football games in reference to those words. When Addison heard

Prince’s song played after the games, he was inspired to write a

new “fight” song for the Lions athletic programs to use. 

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“One day I saw someone wearing a Purple Reign shirt,” said Addison.

“The concept behind Purple Reign is great. I remembered being at

UNA games and at the end they play Prince’s “Purple Rain.” 

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Those are two totally different things. I was like man, there has

got to be a better song for UNA. They are the Lions, they are tough

and they need a more upbeat, solid song; something that screams out

lions.”

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Addison brought a lot of the ideas for the project to Lawson and

Sanchez, and together they wrote the lyrics and music to the

song. 

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“[Jeff] came to me with the idea,” said Lawson. “I thought it was a

good idea because I agree that UNA needed something new, fresh and

tougher to create a better atmosphere for football and sports in

general.” 

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The guys said that the lyrics were written and reworked several

times. Addison and Lawson hit a snag while writing the chorus,

which Addison blamed on “writer’s block.” That is when they

enlisted the help of Sanchez, who “banged out the chorus in 30

minutes” according to Addison. 

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“When we wrote those lyrics, we were thinking how the song was

going to portray UNA and how everyone was going to respond to it,

and we hope that everyone has a good response. We want it to

represent UNA for a long time.”

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Once the song was written, Lawson and Sanchez recorded the music

and the electronic effects.

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 “As far as the song goes, he [Sanchez] did the bass line, I

[Lawson] did the guitar work, we programmed the drums, and we both

did some other electronic programming and the background vocals,”

said Lawson.

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The group then needed someone to sing the lyrics. They contacted

Justin Rose, a singer that Lawson and Sanchez had played with

previously. 

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“Justin Rose sang the song,” said Lawson. “He’s from a band called

Frequency 54. He’s a great singer. Our band played with his band

back a while ago. As soon as I heard him sing I really liked

it. 

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I thought his voice would go really well with this song. He lives

in Michigan, so we called him up and he recorded the vocals up

there in a studio and we produced it via voice chat.”

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All told, the song took around two months to put together according

to Addison, Sanchez and Lawson. They were very careful about

keeping the song centered on UNA athletics throughout the process

of creating the song. 

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“Two of the song’s catch phrases are ‘uncaged’ and ‘this is our

kingdom,” said Addison. “The song talks about pride and glory. We

talk about the traditions at UNA. We took Pride Rock, The main

purposes of the song, according to Addison, Lawson and Sanchez, are

to get the crowd at UNA sporting events going and to get everyone

excited about UNA. The song is also intended to bring fans together

with the teams and to be liked by everyone.”

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For anyone who likes the song and wants a copy, it may be

downloaded from iTunes, Rhapsody and all other major music

downloading sites for 99 cents.