Fawn!

I was inspired to write the lyrics for “Fawn!” after a scary experience where I was cornered on a bus by a man when I was trying to get off at a stop. With the help of another woman, I was able to get away, but the experience really shook me and reminded me how exhausting hypervigilance is. To constantly have to scan your surroundings for threats. I remember saying “excuse me” and trying to be polite in the face of being assaulted. My survival instinct was to Fawn. The song is about how when you are noticed, you can be under threat, but then when you are more invisible, you can be really pushed around and stepped on. It’s about that anger and frustration with this lose-lose.

The line “I feel like the snake who ate the egg” is a metaphor for not being able to hide or skate by even when you want to. That snake is fooling no one. The song at its core is about reclaiming personal power, continuing to protect each other and creating safer spaces in our communities and in the world. The final lyric is obscured purposely in the mix and is meant to be a safety spell—I sing “I walk safely home.”

Movable Objects

This is the very first song we wrote with our drummer, Jon. I was in love with how, even without other instruments, it made me dance. I’d been wanting to write lyrics surrounding a chorus that said “movable objects” for a while, and I knew immediately this was the song!

“Movable Objects” is about how much I struggle with change and starting something new. I often feel like I have to be perfect before trying and can really get stressed with “choosing correctly.” It’s about how there is no right path and how many different configurations and ways of being can lead to happiness. It’s also about how systems in society aren’t designed to uplift and fit most of us and instead steal our joy and control our time. The song is about freedom from stagnation and just really living your life on your own terms as much as possible.

Come Feel Me

This song is about at once wanting to feel seen but also fly under the radar in certain scenarios. It can get confusing sometimes. You want the positive interactions but not the ick that can also come from unwanted attention. “Come Feel Me” verse starts with a story of a person just trying to go about their life and being approached by people who think they are entitled to their energy and time. I was thinking of negative run-ins I’ve had with cis-men while walking down the street, past toxic relationships, scenarios at jobs, and other moments where you are just trying so hard to feel embodied and mind your own business.

The chorus is a disco spell-like chant that has optimism in it. It’s an invitation to take up your own space and also be on your own timeline. Then the second verse completes the story, describing a sort of arduous journey to escaping all the noise and distractions so that you can feel and remember your desires again. “Stand against the wall and say, come feel me” is saying yes to things that do feel good.

Never Twice

Never twice just spilled out into a song immediately at a practice. The song is just really REALLY sincere and came from an emotional place. I had an aura migraine headache I’d just recovered from before band practice. I used to get them as a kid, but pretty much miraculously stopped getting them after I quit high school and did independent study. The line “my poor head” stemmed from that quite literally, but also I just was in the feels about my struggles with anxiety and thought loops that are part of my world. It sounds hyperbole, and it is… but I mean it. Our poor heads sometimes.

I had always wanted to write a song that nodded to “In the Flesh” by Blondie and thought of this song as having a tiny influence. Repeating “I want to” many times in the song feels like waking up. Remembering. It feels sort of urgent and romantic, wanting to fall in with someone or wanting to just exist and feel like enough to yourself. The little bridge really speaks to having personal agency and choosing moments where you let yourself go. I picture a lot of water visually whenever I sing this part.

Go Again

Sometimes I write about a few different topics in one song, and then they come together to tell a story. It’s how my brain tends to process things, with a lot of thoughts and stories overlapping each other and trying to find the connections.

The beginning lyric is like gently calling someone in from a behavior that’s a destructive way to try and get what they want. I tried to write it in a way that was sugar coated, like when I’ve felt afraid to speak up and felt the need to douse my boundary in sweetness for safety reasons as a Femme. There’s a double meaning where I also picture the same lyric as me talking to myself, and it is my intuition gradually getting louder, saying, “Hey, this is not the way!” and redirecting me.

The song shifts to the topic of trying to say something perfectly but losing authenticity in the process. Going through the motions, or when people feel scripted and are saying all the right things but aren’t actually being kind. “It’s like she has ESPN” is obviously a reference to the movie Mean Girls; I couldn’t help myself. The song as a whole is about all the obstacles and roadblocks that are just part of existing and being vulnerable while continuing to feel momentum.

Envision Another

It was wild, but I dreamt the melody and chorus for “Envision Another” and actually remembered it when I woke up, which has never happened before! I quickly recorded myself singing. We started there and wrote the rest of the parts in person.

The song is about best-case scenarios and envisioning an alternate reality personally and collectively. I also describe some of the overwhelm I feel as being a neurodivergent person with sensations. Lines like “I hear colors, I see sounds” describe some of how I experience the world. I wanted to write about taking exactly who you are and what you’ve got and releasing ourselves and each other from any shame.