into my soul. That inspired the whole song", she explained. Lee later confirmed that person was Josh Hartzler, a therapist who became a close friend and she married in 2007. The song is about "open-mindedness", Lee said. "It's about waking up to all the things you've been missing for so long." After the moment that inspired her to write the song, Lee "realized that for months I'd been numb, just going through the motions of life." Lee said that she generally writes songs alone first on the piano or on acoustic guitar, and for Fallen she would write a song and work with Moody to "take it to the finish line." Moody and David Hodges also share writing credits on the track. In 2004, Lee expressed that the making of Fallen was stressful because "we had to remember at least one big single had to be totally radio-friendly. And I'm really ready not to think that way." Recording work for Fallen began at Ocean Studios in Burbank, California, where most of "Bring Me to Life" was recorded, prior to full album production. The song was mixed by Jay Baumgardner in his studio, NRG Recording Studios in North Hollywood, on an SSL 9000 J. A 22-piece string section was recorded in Seattle by Mark Curry. "Bring Me to Life" was mixed at the Newman Scoring Stage and Bolero Studios, both in Los Angeles. David Campbell provided the song's strings, an "expense" Lee fought for. "Bring Me to Life" is stylistically a nu metal-rap rock song, which Lee disliked as the label forced them to add the male rapping vocal to make it marketable, or the song and the album would not be released. During an interview, Lee stated: "It was presented to me as, 'You're a girl singing in a rock band, there's nothing else like that out there, nobody's going to listen to you. You need a guy to come in and sing back-up for it to be successful.'" Lee wrote Paul McCoy's part. On the chorus, Lee sings the lines "'Call my name and save me from the dark' over "surging guitars", and McCoy raps the lines "Wake me up/ I can't wake up/ Save me!". According to the sheet music published by Alfred Music Publishing on the website Musicnotes.com, the song is set in common time and performed in a moderate tempo of 95 beats per minute. It