Song Q&A

What’s the song about?

My hope is that it works to express how I have been feeling — the sense of anger and loss. The song alternates between pretty verses and angry choruses. The start and end are both from the Apollo mission to the moon, and at the end you hear the clip about the computers having control of critical functions. And I end the song with a hippo laughing at that. It’s a little creepy maybe.

Where did the idea come from?

I wrote this entire song on a flight from New York across the country. I was just feeling really intense emotions of dread and anger and loss, and I really felt like those emotions just wrote the song for me.

How did it come together in the studio/production?

The main components are a piano, a gritty bass, and then some very aggressive male vocals that almost sound like yelling.

Why this song is significant

This song has the best arrangement of anything I’ve done and it’s the song I’m probably most proud of out of anything I’ve written. It was kind of hard to do music for a couple of months afterwards because everything didn’t seem as good. Every time I listen to it I get a lump in my throat and it makes me feel SO MUCH. If I could get people to listen to anything I’ve written it would be this song, and my current goal is to do something I like better than it. I just feel like it’s kind of badass.

Favourite moment in the track

The hippo laughing at the end after the Apollo clip — it’s a little creepy but it feels right.

One thing listeners might miss

If you listen carefully, the piano is accompanied by another instrument about halfway through the song. It makes the piano sound a little more plucked. I wanted it to shift a little.

Any lyrics you’re especially proud of?

N/A — instrumental with sampled vocal clips.