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This song was written after David listened to Caribou by Pixies and liked the chord progression in the verses. It was written very quickly and the lyrics came about naturally as the song progressed, with minor changes down the road. It was originally played at a much faster tempo and had a guitar solo. The chorus was actually a leftover from January as one of David’s futile attempts to expand the song.
The song can be interpreted as either being about feeling like you’re going crazy, a person with mental illnesses, or how we treat mental illness in America (poorly). You can have whatever interpretation you’d like. It was written near the beginning of the coronavirus quarantine. David remembers standing in the garage, sandwiched between two cars, writing as he went along. It came about very quickly, and was the first song to use David’s beloved Rainbow Machine pedal.
This song makes heavy use of the Kaoss Pad KP2 and Rainbow Machine in the intro and bridge. David was super pumped to use those in an actual song, because they’re his favorite pieces of gear he has. It’s also David’s favorite song to sing because he gets to do a bunch of yelps and stuff.
That riff after the second chorus is one of our favorite parts to play since it’s just so much fun. Plus, concert goers are always suckers for a good ol’ fashioned double time segment.
To be honest, over time this song has grown off of us a little bit. We agree that it’s probably our least favorite on the EP, and we could have done a better job developing it a bit more. But hey, it’s still a good track and fun to play, so we’re happy. And people seem to like it too, as it’s currently the second most-streamed track on the EP.
Also the whispered “what about that dog” in the second verse is hilarious.
[Verse]
Oh yeah
Alright
Oh yeah
I’ve had million faces living in my mattress for weeks
Call the doctor in, they say that I should call the police
I say “Help me doctor, I know they are coming for me”
Ask me how I know the end is coming while I wrap in fleece
[Chorus]
And I’m hoping they will understand
I need to pray they understand
I don’t need no helping hand
[Verse]
Lock me up and tell me no one can decipher my thoughts
Then I ask them, “Aw yeah, what about that dog?”
Call me crazy, call me words I will not understand
All I know is that I dare them to try me again
[Chorus]
And soon they all will see
As I preach to the thousandth jury
That they don’t stand a chance
[Outro]
I been all around the world in my mind’s open eye
Seen the things they say will make you shrivel up and die
Help me doctor, it’s getting much much much much much much harder to stand
Wait a minute, have all this time he’s been a tin can?
Sitting in my basement
That’s not alright…
This was one of the last demos David made in Audacity before he got FL Studio. It’s at a way faster tempo and has some different vocal inflections and such. Overall, not too far off from the final song, just with bad vocals. It also originally used the fuzz interlude that we now play before Pariah at our shows.
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We use this song as an opener for our set sometimes. It’s a cool way to slowly bring people in with the quiet intro, then slap them in the face when the drums come in. We try to do a little more improv during this song live, since we feel like we can do a much better job with our performances than what we got on the studio version of this track.
It’s a pretty fun song to play, and David loves singing it. He does it a little differently every time, so I guess you’ll just have to come to all our shows to see the variations.