This song was a detour into a poppier sound. It started as an intentional Weezer ripoff song David wrote called Crack-Up. We put this song together in just one day, and Ryan remembers coming up with the name Stay On Path on the spot based on an old photo of a sign in Yellowstone we found in David’s camera roll. Here’s the image:
It’s also the first song we ever wrote that changes time signature, another Downcoast staple. In the bridge, it switches back and forth between 3/4 and 4/4. The structure of the song was inspired by another Weezer song, LA Girlz. Upon writing the song, we all really liked it, but weren’t sure if this was the direction we wanted to go in. David originally sang it, but we decided Keegan’s voice fit better for the track. David wasn’t too happy about that since it’s a really fun song to sing.
The chords for the chorus of this song ended up getting reused for Help Me Doctor. The first chord in the chorus is the same as the first chord in the HMD chorus, and the post-chorus of HMD uses that same motif with the open E and A strings. They’re really cool chords, what can we say.
The song is about how modern life disconnects us from what’s really important. The chorus is also unintentionally similar to the bridge of Blame It On The Tetons by Modest Mouse. Overall, we all like this track. It was considered for the EP and recorded in the studio, but ended up getting left off because it just didn’t fit. You can check out the studio version in the Demos section.
Performing this song at the Acoustic Suicide Prevention Benefit concert in March 2020 was the first time we ever had anybody get their cell phone lights out for a performance of ours. It was a really beautiful moment, and something we all remember fondly. Even though we weren’t very good back then, the Boise music community still supported us and we couldn’t be more thankful for that.
Check out the video on this page of us recording this song in the studio on March 15, 2020.
[Chorus]
Everyone’s a little worried
About something, nothing, and everything at once
Everyone’s a little hurried
Carrying something that was only revolutionary once
[Verse 1]
Every single day here
A crater seems to form suddenly
Without an asteroid to create its state
Of meaning
Every time I stay here
The guy in the room that’s next door to me
Will not stop kicking
[Verse 2]
The guy who sits beside me
Likes to talk about a whole lot of things
But I don’t care for his dialect
So I tune out
Time is flying by me
Like the sun, it’s a puppet on a string
Who’s tired of spinning
[Bridge]
The water is now shallow (oh-oh-oh)
In it we wallow until we
Find our way outside
The water warms our bodies (oh-oh-oh)
Until the sun really begins to
Shine, it’s bright out, won’t you join?
[Outro]
Stay on path, stay on path
Oooooh
Here’s the original demo from March 2019, when the song was called Crack-Up. Maybe it was named after that Fleet Foxes album? Who knows.
Here is the demo David made of this song in July 2019. Why does he play so fast in all his demos?
And here’s a performance of the song from September 2019, prepping for our first show.
Here it is: the studio-recorded version of Stay On Path. Recorded in March 2020, with scratch vocals.
(If this doesn’t load for you, reload the page. Idk why it does that lol)
This song is one of our favorites to perform, even though it doesn’t fit with our sound anymore. It’s a fun one because it’s really easy for us all to play, leaving us lots of room to jump around and stuff. Plus, it’s fun and bouncy with a steady tempo.
It’s probably not going to be played going forward past the EP though, because it would mess with the vibe of our shows. We might pull it out every once in a blue moon though.