This song is about marketing, about using psychology for evil and trying to sell us fake feelings of comfort instead of helping us address why we have those feelings in the first place. It's about how much I hate money and how badly I want everyone to feel free and alive.

We were dragged to school at a very young age and taught to trust, respect, even fear adults. We are presented with a skewed abridged version of reality, told that many things are none of our business, or that we are too young to understand, and what we must do in order to succeed is to unquestioningly remain on the conveyer belt, keeping hands inside at all times, and never questioning our instructors. Upon being dumped out 18 or so years later, what we find is that those who got angry at us for asking questions did so because their egos were embarrassed of being imperfect, and that all these safeguards had been put in place so that the structure would not be disturbed. But nearly everything great comes from pushing for answers. Every scientific advancement occurs only through someone saying "you know, I think I can figure out a way to do this better," much to the displeasure of every one of their highly offended teachers who scold them because they would rather feel powerful than seek the truth.

This made me feel very isolated as a child because -- although I wasn't the only one who hated school -- I couldn't find anyone who would believe what I felt in my gut all along: what passes for education actually kills creativity, and teaching with the feeling that you know everything is just a sad excuse to feel powerful in an otherwise powerless world. Perhaps some of my disruptive actions did not serve my cause well, but frustration overwhelms good judgment most of the time, and because we are not taught proper coping mechanisms for stress, what else could I have done?

So now I am older, and I see that most people are jaded and have given up trying to do what they know is right out of exhaustion or fear, so I struggle to try to find a coherent way to motivate people, to beg for their help, to instill a sense of hope.

The song is about escaping your problems in general, and how it only makes things worse when you don't face your fears, and how a series of fearful reactions added up on top of each other produce an absolute mess of a life. And it all seems to be rooted with your parents. When they aren't supportive of you, aren't there to be your friend and love you unconditionally, fill you with their own fears, you push them away, and you become isolated, and feel the need to search for all of these things to fill that void, but until you learn to forgive them for being imperfect, and get over that hump of not fearing their disapproval, you are in for many nights of sleeping on hardwood floors.

I grew up in middle-class Chicago suburbs. It was nice enough, but still the talks of stranger danger and locking your doors kids whose parents had guns and guard dogs were there.

It took me years after moving out to rid myself of all these stressful reflexes. I did not want to live in fear. There is a huge difference between caution and paranoia, and I was determined to free myself of worry, and the only way I learned how was to trust my brain, but the only way to do that was to really be aware of what voice was my logical brain, and what was the panic-stricken terror pretending to be my brain. It's easy, just pay attention to your heart-rate.

A girl growing up in the 50's and 60's was a second-class citizen, talked down to, treated like they had no potential to be anything more than a baby-making housewife, and so that's what many became. My grandmother devoted her entire life to caring for her children and husband, and now that her husband is gone and her children are grown, she has no idea what to do with her life, so she just sits and watches television that she doesn't even like, waiting to die.

My mother planned on doing the same thing, but hers was a smothering, conditional love, and my father ran away from the pressure.

So this song is about trying to see the root of all your parents problems. Seeing the desperation of wanting to be loved and cared for because it's all you know and you're terrified because no one taught you how to take care of yourself. And it's knowing that every time I was chased around the house to have my pants pulled down by this lunatic that would beat me as a screamed bloody murder, it was all this frustration and disappointment (and abuse of the Bible's "spare the rod" verse) that justified her actions as okay.

The tape recording at the end was my mother scolding my sister (then 4 years old) for throwing her cupcake wrapper (it was her birthday) and getting crumbs all over the floor.

The record after that was sampled from this very creepy album called "the talking record for girls" that was made in the 50's.

It is clear that frustration has to be overcome in order to make any kind of change. That pacifism is really the only solution, otherwise you become the monster you hate. But oh man, is it hard not to rip off someone's head sometimes. For me, I noticed that when I start to think that someone is stupid for not being able to be as good as me at something, that's when I start to treat them without empathy. That when I forget that I am not perfect, I am capable of berating someone. So I'm trying my best to stay calm, to listen, and to remember that I am nowhere near perfect, and neither is anyone else.

So this song is about learning how to ignore others when they criticize you for being different.

I want to have intelligent conversations, not blab about nothing. I am not a stick-in-the-mud because of this. I have no interest in gossip and celebrities and puffing my chest up to tell the best stories of how crazy my trip to Vegas was. I do not want to be embarrassed because something is personal. I want to share things! I want people to share with me! I want to be peaceful and learn how to see that when others get upset, it has everything to do with them and not with me. I do not want to give up! This world could be so much better if we could all do this, if we all didn't feel so ashamed of feeling scared about waking up in the morning. I'm not saying that we should be depressed, but rather we should be honest so that we can all feel less alone and have the strength to pursue what we wish we had the courage to do.