School of Music dedicates new song to Trojan Athletics

"Rebuild the Wall" is a collaboration between POPulus, Concert Chorale and the Sound of the South.

The Troy Trojans’ athletic success has spawned a brand new song from the John M. Long School of Music.

“Rebuild the Wall,” a single dedicated to Trojan Athletics, is a collaboration between three TROY musical groups: POPulus, Concert Chorale and the Sound of the South.

Songwriter Robert W. Smith, coordinator of TROY’s music industry program and director of POPulus, said the lyrics are inspired by football Head Coach Neal Brown’s mantra when he took over the program in 2015.

“Since he started here, he’s been using the phrase, ‘Rebuild the Wall,’ and if you study the history of the ancient city of Troy, you see that they were constantly having to rebuild that wall to new levels of success,” Smith said. “I remember when Coach Brown was the offensive coordinator, and he was such a good young coach even then. To watch him work over these past three years has been very inspirational in terms of what it’s done for our entire university.”

Combined with the success of other sports, such as the men’s and women’s basketball teams, the spark of inspiration for “Rebuild the Wall” led to a team effort to create something special.

Smith, who also wrote the University alma mater, went to work on writing the song and drew on the talents of the members of POPulus to create an initial track.

“With ‘Rebuild the Wall,’ we were trying to create exact the same effect as the alma mater, something that speaks to current students, alums and, perhaps most importantly, words and lyrics that will speak to the future,” he said. “The genres of ‘Rebuild the Wall’ are rock ‘n’ roll, which is an amazing genre that has been popular now longer than most other music forms, (and) we merged that with current hip hop. We’re spanning genres and age groups, and hopefully these are words that will resonate with everybody.”

In addition to the work from POPulus, the finished song features the Sound of the South providing the Trojan fanfare as well as a driving drum loop.

Concert Chorale contributes a chorus that Smith envisions Trojan fans singing aloud at stadiums and arenas.

“We recorded and sampled the first phrase of the fanfare written by John M. Long,” he said. “You’ll hear that flying over the top. Then the Sound of the South drum line comes in, providing the hip hop loop. After that, the crowd gets a chance to sing, and we want everyone to sing, so we brought in our Concert Chorale, an incredible group of vocalists, and they represent the voices of the many.”

Smith also hopes the song will be inspirational for the athletes themselves as they prepare for games.

“When this thing begins, you’ll hear the sounds of these Trojan warrior footsteps — it’s almost like the Trojan legion is about to enter the field of battle,” he said. “What inspired that was the thought of the athletes in the tunnel, getting ready to enter the arena or the field, and then this thing starts to drive and here come the lyrics. The Trojan nation is alive.”

“Rebuild the Wall” will soon be available on iTunes and other digital music platforms.

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