Premiere: Yellowcard's 'One Bedroom' lyric video

Yellowcard frontman Ryan Key calls the group's new single, One Bedroom, "a pretty true-to-form love song." Really, it's so much more.

For one thing, the song — the lyric video for which premieres at USA TODAY — points to a new musical direction for the band's seventh studio album, Lift a Sail, due in September.

"There are a lot of elements in One Bedroom that showcase elements that happen throughout the record," Key says.

For another, the love story behind the song is anything but true to form. Or, perhaps, it's the truest form.

In 2012, Key met the woman who would become his wife, professional Russian snowboarder Alyona Alekhina, at a concert in Madrid. They would marry the following year, but, before they did, Alekhina suffered a spinal injury that left her paralyzed from the waist down.

The couple married in the intensive care unit.

Though the phrase never appears in the song's lyrics, One Bedroom refers to the tiny Denver apartment where the newlyweds lived while Alekhina underwent rehabilitation after a surgery.

"It was a last-second, go-to-Ikea-and-get-a-bunch-of-furniture-so-you-can-live-there apartment," Key says. "Neither one of us had any connection to Denver, but she really wanted to stay there to do extended rehabilitation. A lot of the time, it was just the two of us. When you go through something like that without having family and close friends there, it can really get dark.

"We both went through all kinds of ups and downs emotionally, but we had each other and we had this space."

So when Key sings these lyrics, he's singing more than sweet thoughts.

What good could I do in a life without you?
What more could I lose than what I found in you?
What words could I use to say all this to you?
What verse could I choose to give myself to you?

Musically, the song's two sections — a tender lyrical section that blends organic and electronic elements, particularly at the rhythm level, and a massive guitar outro — signal something new for Yellowcard. For years, the Warped Tour favorites have been known for their melodic punk style, particularly on their breakthrough 2003 album Ocean Avenue.

"This record," Key says, "is not that."

Along with guitarist Ryan Mendez, violinist Sean Mackin and bassist Josh Portman and guest drummer Nate Young from Anberlin, the group has created a larger, more anthemic rock sound that draws inspiration from '90s acts like Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Filter, Weezer, Foo Fighters — the bands that prompted the members of Yellowcard to pick up their instruments initially.

"We've always had a burning desire to be a rock band," Key says. "We've explored it in different ways along the path.

"We don't want to keep writing the same record over and over. We've always tried to make each record independent of the others, but on this one we really went for it."

Key says the band will play a lot of material from Lift a Sail on its fall tour, which begins Oct. 16 in Las Vegas. "Because we've been on tour so solidly, I hope our fans will welcome it, because it will be such a different experience, something new to see from us, as opposed to the same set list we've brought through the last three U.S. tours," he says. "I know, as a fan of music, I'm amped for it."