Song Information
What Raine Maida Thinks: |
| Birdman "I assume he was some kind of politician that lost it and was living on the streets and just going nuts all night. It was strange. The next morning, I just caught a few words as I passed by him, and he was one of the most intelligent people I have ever heard speak. Right then I had this enlightenment. I did not give him a chance, and there is probably times where you miss opportunities because you form opinions so quickly. We arm ourselves when there's nothing to fear, right? Wrong!!! I can't see him but he's stalking my thoughts." Raine Maida Starseed It was based on this book by Ken Carey, The Starseed Transmissions, about a channelling experience he had. The whole chorus is about if you have had a channelling experience and during this experience you find something you believe and trying to convince everybody else is not always an easy task. I'm into a lot of meditating. My dad was Catholic and he tried to school me in that, but I never really agreed with him. I've always been interested in religion and the way it affects society. The Starseed thing is about going on a meditation journey and coming back with something tangible. Something you actually believe in. Something that means something to you. It is hard to convince people of my father's generation of anything other than the religious values instilled in them." Raine Maida Naveed "It's named after a friend of mine," Maida says. "His name is Naveed. He is Iranian and one day he told me the background (of the name) was a person referred to as a bearer of good news. The album title "NAVEED" kind of ties in all the lyrics. 'Naveed' talks about someone scared to die, but at the same time interested in it. Naveed was playing with a gun and was unaware that one chamber within the gun contained a bullet. We took the concept of Naveed and placed it in the dark optimism of our music. We have forced Naveed to travel the distance between mysticism and bitter reality..." Raine Maida Superman's Dead "It's just about how hard it is for kids to grow up today. They're inundated with the media and images and cliques they try to have to fit into. Two images that are really strong for me lyrically are 'ordinary's just not good enough today,' and when I think of kids today, I would never think of a group of eight-year-olds going out to a baseball park and throwing the ball around. It doesn't happen any more. I have a nine-year-old brother; he's either inside playing Nintendo or staying up late on a school night watching Beavis & Butt-Head. And you juxtapose that against the old Superman, on the black and white series. He was a real hero, good values, strong willed, a gentleman, but I think Beavis & Butt-Head wins today." Raine Maida Automatic Flowers Is about a woman who lived alone in her apartment. She has little going on in her life, and the apartment is dingy, without much of a view. She has boxes from her childhood, and one day she takes out a pop-up book and opens it to a garden with pop-up flowers. Whenever she wants to cheer herself up, she opens the book.``Crying, crying/She couldn't afford the view/Crying, crying/These automatic flowers won't do.'' Carnival "Hey, you all remember that game where you're, you're like 8 years old or 9 years old? You'd be walking home from 4th grade, remember 4th grade? Remember your 4th grade teacher? Mine was Ms. Bealak, she was a real bitch. Remember 4th grade and you're walking home right? All of a sudden you're jumping, like this, right? You're avoiding the cracks, you're not steppin' on the cracks because, remember that game? Don't step on the cracks, don't break you're mother's back. Well we're playing in Denver, it's hot as shit and we're all exausted by the heat and all, Mike and I are walking right, and we start hopping over the cracks like a bunch of idiots, hold on, you don't understand. In my crazy head I start thinking about this silly kids' game, it's supposed to be this silly kids game where you hop over the cracks, you don't break your mother's back, I'm thinking; you know what this isn't a game, this is like preparation for being an adult, or being like a teenager, and what happens, hold on, those cracks become the math exam you failed, or the girlfriend or boyfriend, and now you're having a baby, they're pregnant, or the day your parents sit you down and tell you that they're getting a divorce. Those are the cracks that you have to hop over, you guys get that? This is what I'm thinking, and you're mother's back becomes your back. And no shit that it is to hard to take and sometimes you're gonna break right? Well this next song is about those days when you feel like you're surrounded by the cracks, they're all around you, It's called 'carnival'." Raine Maida Big Dumb Rocket "This song is a true story about a friend of mine. We were down south staying at a friend's house and this one person had a really cool looking gun. He told me it was a Beretta. It's like a handgun, a real gun, right? So my friend is in the garage or is out in the back or something and I'm playing with this gun. I used to be this super huge Starsky and Hutch fan. So I'm holding the gun thinking I'm pretty cool I guess. I take the clip out because I don't want to hurt anyone obviously. So I put the clip back in the box thinking, I'm fine. So I go and sneak behind this corner and I can see him with my left eye and I'm gonna scare him when he comes by. So my left eye can see him, and my left eye sees him turning the corner, and I'm holding the gun like this, like Starsky would. And he comes around the corner and I say Bang! and he falls and he's almost in tears. He's laughing and crying, he's not sure what to do. I just pointed a gun at my best friend, alright? But everything's okay because I took the clip out. But I guess these Beretta's are famous for having 13 bullets and there's a bullet still in the chamber." Raine Maida 4 A.M. This song was written to honour Raine's Father, and was written at 4 AM. A.M is also Raines father's initials. Clumsy "How are you guys doing this evening? So how many people here have younger brothers or sisters here? That you're going to go home and beat the shit out of? I have a younger brother...we did that until he got bigger than me, but most of our songs are about that, I just try to write all the lyrics that just specifically talk about pounding your siblings... but this next song is about going home, maybe even this evening and giving them a hug, it's called Clumsy." Raine Maida Hello Oskar This song is based on a book called "Hello Oskar" about skitophrenia.There is a reference to Betty Page, who was a 50's pin-up girl, one of the most photographed people ever - up there with Marilyn Monroe. She would pose nude for lingerie, until one day she just disapeared. She probably left to pursue a normal life, and no one has heard from her since. The character Betty Boop was based on this woman. Car Crash "This song is about one particular night. One of those nights where you are sitting in your car and you're half asleep. Where all you can see in front of you is car lights. There's a blinking light up ahead, it could be the police, it could be an ambulance, you don't know. There's cars backed up for miles because of an accident up ahead. When you get closer to the accident you see a car off the road, then another off the road and a third car with the engine on fire. Your left side of your brain tells you to look at the accident but the right side of your brain is asking you if you can handle it. Looking and seeing people hurt, and if someone needed help would you get out and help. This song is about a night just like that, but this accident was not an accident, the woman wanted to die." Raine Maida One Man Army "One Man Army' is about the struggle for individuality. It's about finding the courage to strip naked and set fire to all your inhibitions. It's about cleansing yourself of all the people and things that suffocate your individuality." - Raine Maida Is Anybody Home? "[It's] a distress signal, really. It's a call to everyone who's found themselves stuck in their rooms having their souls sucked out of them by TV and having television or the Internet mold their values and interests. It's a call for help from one isolated person to another" - Raine Maida |
What
I Think: |
| Naveed The Birdman The magical
goal that we can all never reach, "he climbed up top
to find that she was slipping, let her go, let her go,
let me go." Pretty easy if
you know what Naveed means. Not being able to live and
coap with the World and society. Are we safe
amongst people that don't even know what they're doing??
What might they do to us?? "Is it safe to be man,
when the world is loaded with thousands that can't figure
out just what they did." The person we
all want, and finally obtaining it, "she's only
yours tonight." What would we do if we only had that
one night, would we take it and live a dream, or not and
leave the dream safe?? The world is caving in around us, "under your feet the city falls down so far the ground is sky," but we can't flee, "let your best friend pull back that leash." Neon Crossing Neon crossing
is refering to a cross walk, where we can cross the
street, free of the danger of being hit by a car. This is
a song about finding that safe place in danger. Superman's Dead Superman is a symbol for freedom, and if he's dead, our freedom is gone too. Automatic Flowers Flowers are sent to women by men who probably screwed up, and it's a way of saying "I'm sorry." It's an automatic solution that's run thin, "these automatic flowers won't do." Carnival Carnival is happiness, it's where we are happy and symolizes it. "The Carnival closed up," so we lost our happiness. Big Dumb Rocket I'm stuck to
much on Raine's definition of his encounter of holding a
gun to his friend's head to have my own opinion. Looking back at all the wrong things you've done inside your family, most notably father, and thinking you have all this time to mend the wounds, but time runs out, "but a phone call made me realize I'm wrong." Shaking Looking back at all the wrong things you've done inside your family, most notably father, and thinking you have all this time to mend the wounds, but time runs out, "but a phone call made me realize I'm wrong." Clumsy My favourite
song, yet the most complicated. Watching people around
you just waste their lives and fall into mear shadows of
their former selves, "I'll be waving my hand
watching you drown." The little boy we all made fun of, and what he really was on the inside and all he went through, "he's not allowed to drive." Let You Down Self explanatory. The Story of 100 Aisles Looking through the doors of all these aisles, but not finding a solution to our troubles, "cause if you need help she says... there's something I've got saved this is not what you wanted." Car Crash About a car
crash. Duh. How a friend reacts to their friend dying in
a car crash.
One Man Army Taking on the world by yourself. Happiness & The Fish Talk and actually mean it. Whatever you say, make sure it represents you, and will impact at least one person, "Talking is just masturbating without the mess." Potato Girl The girl we all dream of, once again, but this time she hurts us while we think she's doing good, "She stopped your will from caving but left you paranoid." Blister Paranoia, basically. Thinking the World is after us, when we don't really matter to most of it, "No one listens but I'm ok with it." Is Anybody Home? The perfection we see, but we can never experience. Instead, we only want to see the bad, "nazis breast feeding." Waited Waiting for the greatness that will never come, "I waited but I must be too dumb to be proud." Thief It's about the young girl that died because of a brain tumor in the Summer of '99. Lying Awake What will
happen to us on our Judgement Day?? With this, we must
suffer the consequences we put on ourselves, "Don't
ask why you should pay for this." The little girl that we all make fun of, and what she was thinking. Consequence of Laughing I'm thinking
it's about drugs. We believe it's all good when we feel
great while on them, but they take a toll on us. Taking the
dreams of everyone else, and then they find out that your
trying to just become them, "How are you going to
make me understand." Right Behind You (Mafia) Trying to hide from the world, but they stll find you, "I'm always right there behind you." In Repair The robots we've become, and how we fall into a dying society but we still want to live in it, "while they order up new parts." Life Seeing all we've come through, and realizing that's life, and we made it. Middle of Yesterday Wanting to go
back in time so we can say that one perfect thing to make
everything great for us, but we can't and now we suffer
for it, "By a memory that won't help me when it's
happening." Being alone and sad, and trying to hide from the World so we can never let it happen again, "are you locked in your room?" Made To Heal How we always search for that person to make us complete, and we can grow to become better people with them, "I depend on you." Everyone's A Junkie I believe this
attacks religion. Do you believe in God, which we've
never seen. Christians do. Have we ever seen a "big
green monkey??" No. But since we've never seen God
and believe he exists, maybe something as ludicrious as
believing in a big green monkey is just as much a reality
and respectable. Watching our friends and people around us, and knowing that they are caught and stuck in society. "All my friends alone on a hill. They're just looking down with violent minds out on loan. They're just not equipped." If You Believe Believing in the light at the end of the tunnel, and letting someone lead you. The Wonderful Future What will
happen in the future?? We don't know, we can only
speculate that it will open up more doors in our World,
and will be wonderful. |
What You Think: |
| Let's see if this new feature will work out. If you want, email me your opinions and thoughts on some songs (don't have to spend an hour and make a whole list like I did), and just email it to me, to show the whole OLP 'net world how you perceive their songs. Please label the subject "Song Info" when you email. |
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