Lyrics
Go forth
And tell them all that you have seen the North
The wild
The vast beyond it all and all it's worth
Pre Chorus:
They may know that it's there
But the mind may impair
And obstruct from the clearest of views
Whether ready or not
Sometimes it must be taught
They will all point their eyes to you
Chorus:
We grow
Defending mended hearts that
We sew/sow
Patterns in our thoughts and
I know
They'll open my eyes to you
Breathe through
The never-ending life that we knew
Reflected in ourselves
We hold true
And open our eyes to you
Drink deep
The spring that went and woke you from you sleep
They thirst
They must be led by one who's been there first
Pre-Chorus
Chorus
Chorus
And tell them all that you have seen the North
The wild
The vast beyond it all and all it's worth
Pre Chorus:
They may know that it's there
But the mind may impair
And obstruct from the clearest of views
Whether ready or not
Sometimes it must be taught
They will all point their eyes to you
Chorus:
We grow
Defending mended hearts that
We sew/sow
Patterns in our thoughts and
I know
They'll open my eyes to you
Breathe through
The never-ending life that we knew
Reflected in ourselves
We hold true
And open our eyes to you
Drink deep
The spring that went and woke you from you sleep
They thirst
They must be led by one who's been there first
Pre-Chorus
Chorus
Chorus
Story
<Jake>
Will and I had a really cool, symbiotic exchange writing "Open My Eyes." He introduced the basic riff and the idea of a 7/4 chorus, and we really worked together to build out the rest of the form. One of my favorite parts of the song is the interplay between the 4/4 verse and the 7/4 chorus. My lyrics in the verse have an imperative style with a more common time signature, while Will's chorus lyrics become more ambiguous with the time signature, without ever losing the driving feel.
<Will>
When I write lyrics, I have two different approaches – idea-first and words-first. Sometimes I’ll have an idea or feeling that I want to write about, and I’ll usually create phrases relevant to my topic and weave them together to make a coherent song. Other times, I won’t have an idea at all. When testing out melody ideas, I’ll use random words as placeholders, and sometimes those words stick. When that happens, I assign meaning to a few of the random lines and write the remaining lines to fit that meaning. In the end, a song written words-first can be just as emotionally powerful for me as a song written idea-first. It all depends on the final message of the song. Open My Eyes is an example of a words-first approach.
The song ended up being an ambiguous, positive, spiritual message referencing a discovery of some sort of higher, moral power (God, Tao, Atman/Brahman, one’s own conscience, etc.). My own views on spirituality and morality have become increasingly ambiguous recently, so the lyrics reflect my beliefs pretty well. Jake’s verse lyrics were especially helpful in solidifying the message, with a few religious/spiritual references I would not have thought to use.
Musically, Open My Eyes falls into a category of songs where individuality is derived, not from a strange chord progression (probably my favorite way to make a song unique), but from changing time signatures and keys. Keeping a song feeling and sounding fresh throughout is extremely important to me. This desire can also lead to really short songs (the Beatles technique) or arrangement alterations, especially for repeated sections - whatever it takes to satisfy a listener’s, and my own, musical-ADD.
Oh, and there’s a musical Easter egg somewhere in the song. If you’re the first one to figure it out and tell me, I’ll make sure you get into every one of our shows for free, FOREVER. No joke. For those of you who already know because I couldn’t contain my excitement and I had to tell someone - your “guesses” don’t count. Sorry about that.
Will and I had a really cool, symbiotic exchange writing "Open My Eyes." He introduced the basic riff and the idea of a 7/4 chorus, and we really worked together to build out the rest of the form. One of my favorite parts of the song is the interplay between the 4/4 verse and the 7/4 chorus. My lyrics in the verse have an imperative style with a more common time signature, while Will's chorus lyrics become more ambiguous with the time signature, without ever losing the driving feel.
<Will>
When I write lyrics, I have two different approaches – idea-first and words-first. Sometimes I’ll have an idea or feeling that I want to write about, and I’ll usually create phrases relevant to my topic and weave them together to make a coherent song. Other times, I won’t have an idea at all. When testing out melody ideas, I’ll use random words as placeholders, and sometimes those words stick. When that happens, I assign meaning to a few of the random lines and write the remaining lines to fit that meaning. In the end, a song written words-first can be just as emotionally powerful for me as a song written idea-first. It all depends on the final message of the song. Open My Eyes is an example of a words-first approach.
The song ended up being an ambiguous, positive, spiritual message referencing a discovery of some sort of higher, moral power (God, Tao, Atman/Brahman, one’s own conscience, etc.). My own views on spirituality and morality have become increasingly ambiguous recently, so the lyrics reflect my beliefs pretty well. Jake’s verse lyrics were especially helpful in solidifying the message, with a few religious/spiritual references I would not have thought to use.
Musically, Open My Eyes falls into a category of songs where individuality is derived, not from a strange chord progression (probably my favorite way to make a song unique), but from changing time signatures and keys. Keeping a song feeling and sounding fresh throughout is extremely important to me. This desire can also lead to really short songs (the Beatles technique) or arrangement alterations, especially for repeated sections - whatever it takes to satisfy a listener’s, and my own, musical-ADD.
Oh, and there’s a musical Easter egg somewhere in the song. If you’re the first one to figure it out and tell me, I’ll make sure you get into every one of our shows for free, FOREVER. No joke. For those of you who already know because I couldn’t contain my excitement and I had to tell someone - your “guesses” don’t count. Sorry about that.