Rat King – Behind The Song – English version below!
Dies war einer der ersten Songs, die ich für die neue Scheibe geschrieben habe. Wir hatten das Instrumentale schon komplett fertig und aufgenommen und es war sehr anders für uns. Es hatte anfangs dieses Intro-Gefühl, das dann unaufhaltsam in den Chorus führte und ich habe es mir angesehen und gedacht: „Oh, shit. Was soll ich bloß mit diesem Ding machen?“
Zu diesem Zeitpunkt hatte ich bereits seit einigen Tagen Lyrics geschrieben und ich war am Kämpfen. Ich habe versucht diese Lyrics zu schreiben, von denen ich dachte, sie wären „prototypische Great American Ghost Lyrics” und sie haben sich sehr gezwungen angefühlt. Sehr unehrlich. Ich hatte einfach nicht dasselbe gefühlt, was ich fühlte, als wir frühere Alben aufgenommen haben. Mein Leben hatte sich drastisch verändert, also hatte sich auch das, was ich sagen wollte, verändert, aber ich wusste noch nicht, wie ich das sagen konnte, was ich sagen wollte. Als ich also begann „Rat King“ zu schreiben, kam Angst dabei raus. Es war sofort klar, dass das, was ich sagen wollte, davon handelte, wieviel Angst ich davor hatte, daran zu scheitern ein Album zu schreiben, auf das ich stolz sein konnte. Ich habe ziemlich viel Druck gespürt, den ich mir selbst auferlegt hatte, weil ich etwas Besonderes erschaffen wollte, von dem ich noch nicht wusste, wie es aussehen sollte. Es entwickelte sich in die Angst vor dem Versagen generell. Diese Angst, die jeder fühlt, mit allem, was man tut und wie leicht sie alles zerstören kann, wofür man arbeitet. Ich liebe „Rat King“, da dieser Song einen Wendepunkt markiert, an dem ich sehen kann, wo ich mental gewesen bin und ebenso, wo ich schlussendlich angelangt bin, als ich den Song beendete. Hoffentlich können andere sich damit identifizieren.
Lyrics:
Rat King
We begin our lives
Believing that we are meaningful
Endlessly chasing our tails
In pointless circles
The rat kings
The death of the pack
The mountains
Of stones on our back
Life is lost with out a sense of sight
At the end of the tunnel there’s no fucking light
Break me down
The storm within ourselves
Boils and burn us from inside
Pulls us down in an unforgiving tide
We are the ship that never sailed
Crawling until the nails tear apart
Shallow graves where our failures rest
The only end when you’re cursed from the start
Faith is just
A wish in a well
And don’t you wish
You were someone else
Existence inches from the fall
Of ever being anyone at all
Hope won’t save us now
Lost souls without a purpose
Unaware that life is worthless
Everything comes crashing down
Hope won’t save us now
And this I promise
Our world will find no solace
We all end up in the fucking ground
We all end up in the fucking ground
Faith is just
A wish in a well
And don’t you wish
You were someone else
Anyone else you coward
The rat kings
The death of the pack
The mountains
Of stones on our back
Life is lost with out a sense of sight
At the end of the tunnel there’s no fucking light
Hope won’t save us now
English version!
Behind The Song: Rat King
This song was one of the first that I wrote for the record. We had the instrumental all written and recorded and it was very different for us. It had this intro type feel at the beginning that led into this soaring chorus and I looked at it like “oh shit. What am I gonna do with this thing?”
I had been writing lyrics for a few days at that point and I was struggling. I was trying to write these lyrics that I thought were “prototypical Great American Ghost lyrics” and they were feeling very forced. Very dishonest. I just didn’t feel what I felt when we record previous albums. My life had changed, drastically, and so in turn what I wanted to say had changed but I didn’t know how to say what I wanted to say just yet. So when I began to write “Rat King” what came out was fear. It was instantly clear that what I needed to say was how frightened I was of failing in making a record that I could be proud of. I was feeling a massive amount of pressure, that I was putting on myself, to make something special without really knowing what that looked like just yet. It evolved into fear of failure in general. That fear that everyone feels in whatever they do and how easily it can destroy whatever it is that you are working for. I love “Rat King”, being able to look back on it from where I was mentally to where I finally ended up finishing the record it’s a special marker in time for me. Hopefully others can relate.
Rat King
Lyrics:
We begin our lives
Believing that we are meaningful
Endlessly chasing our tails
In pointless circles
The rat kings
The death of the pack
The mountains
Of stones on our back
Life is lost with out a sense of sight
At the end of the tunnel there’s no fucking light
Break me down
The storm within ourselves
Boils and burn us from inside
Pulls us down in an unforgiving tide
We are the ship that never sailed
Crawling until the nails tear apart
Shallow graves where our failures rest
The only end when you’re cursed from the start
Faith is just
A wish in a well
And don’t you wish
You were someone else
Existence inches from the fall
Of ever being anyone at all
Hope won’t save us now
Lost souls without a purpose
Unaware that life is worthless
Everything comes crashing down
Hope won’t save us now
And this I promise
Our world will find no solace
We all end up in the fucking ground
We all end up in the fucking ground
Faith is just
A wish in a well
And don’t you wish
You were someone else
Anyone else you coward
The rat kings
The death of the pack
The mountains
Of stones on our back
Life is lost with out a sense of sight
At the end of the tunnel there’s no fucking light
Hope won’t save us now
