I’ve had a few people message me asking for lyrics to ‘Never Odd or Even’, our latest single (released Aug 16, avail to listen everywhere, or better yet, buy it on Bandcamp).
So I’m posting below first the lyrics only, then below that, the lyrics again but with block quotes under each section to talk about the meaning of the lyrics.
For a high-level context, this song is about the gray-area between dream-life and waking-life, and how vivid dreams can stick in the mind the same way that any memories can.
Here’s a quote from an article in Glide Magazine:
I’ve had dreams that stand out far more than others—so vivid they feel as real as any other memory. Sometimes, as I go about my day, a flashback of a dream enters my mind, and I’m unsure if it’s a dream or a waking memory. Because my waking life has turned out so strange—traveling the multiverse with a group of extraterrestrials (and playing in a country band with them, of all things)—dream and reality have just melted down into a bizarre blob of existence, and as far as I can tell they’re on the same plane.
Never Odd or Even (lyrics only)
Get up, turn the dial, get down
Close one eye and dance around wearing a styrofoam crown
An appliance with a set of three eyes
Hovering above us, coming through windows, now its inside
Phone rang, at the end of the line
Ma, she worried, something ain’t right
Is it my turn to die?
Long hall, on a three-wheeled bike
Dodging sharp arrows
Space opens
I can see the exit sign
And then I trip I trip, into a black hole, And I slip I slip, All the way down
And when I wake I wake, well some of it sticks
Don’t tell me my dreams are fake
Sometimes I get glimpses from the future…
He wrote ‘The Book of the Absent Man’
Last I heard he was selling snake oil somewhere in Japan
Drunk drivel by day, grift by night
If you got a pulse, give Ruth a call
You know ya gotta set things right
Interference, got static in the attic
But the winds of change are gonna blow it all away
You tell me ‘there’s no need to panic’
Silhouette at the edge of my bed
My legs won’t move, my mouth won’t open
I’m frozen instead
Never Odd or Even (lyrics + Ty’s notes)
Get up, turn the dial, get down
Close one eye and dance around wearing a styrofoam crown
⬆️ Waking up and going straight into cranking up some music and dancing like a freak to start the day. A styrofoam crown symbolizes the unimportance of status and material things. It’s temporary.
An appliance with a set of three eyes
Hovering above us, coming through windows, now its inside
⬆️ This is about a very vivid dream I had as a child. There were flying vacuum cleaners with 3 eyes flying all over outside. One came through the bedroom window as I was sleeping and was hovering right above my head. I couldn’t move, as hard as I tried.
Phone rang, at the end of the line
Ma, she worried, something ain’t right
Is it my turn to die?
⬆️ This from another very vivid dream I had as a child. My mother was on the phone (landline) thinking she was secretly speaking with a doctor about me. My spirit was visibly (slowly) leaving my body. When I looked at my hands I could see a ‘ghost copy’. She was worried I was sick and dying and she didn’t know what to do but call a doctor.
Long hall, on a three-wheeled bike
Dodging sharp arrows
Space opens
I can see the exit sign
⬆️ This from yet another vivid dream I had as a child. I was in this Taj Mahal-like palace, riding on a tricycle down this very wide, long hallway with grand marble floors. I was being rapidly chased by Native Americans, who were shopoting arrows at me as they rode horses or ran by foot, chasing me down in the hallway after me.
And then I trip I trip, into a black hole, And I slip I slip, All the way down
And when I wake I wake, well some of it sticks
Don’t tell me my dreams are fake
Sometimes I get glimpses from the future…
⬆️ This is about the disorienting feeling of when we awake from a vivid dream, aren’t fully awake, and can’t tell what’s ‘real’ or ‘fake’
He wrote ‘The Book of the Absent Man’
Last I heard he was selling snake oil somewhere in Japan
⬆️ We are starting to drift into waking-life here. This line is about a rumor I heard from someone in Red Lodge MT that my estranged father (who I haven’t seen since I was a child) is somewhere in Japan being a grifter. My mother (Ruth) and I have often talked about where he could be. If he’s alive or not. Why he left. And so on…
Drunk drivel by day, grift by night
If you got a pulse, give Ruth a call
You know ya gotta set things right
⬆️ I had been reading my father’s writings I found in the attic of our home. They often seem like he was under the influence when writing it, or maybe he was having visions. “Reptile alien races are manufacturing black holes in the spaces between dimensions and luring other beings into them’… That said, a lot of it turned out to be true, and I keep discovering more truths as I travel the multiverse that align with my fathers bizarre writings.
Interference, got static in the attic
But the winds of change are gonna blow it all away
You tell me ‘there’s no need to panic’
⬆️ ‘Static in the attic’ is the mind caught in confusion about what’s happening. Reality? Dream? My mother would always comfort me when I awoke from a crazy dream. ‘There’s no need to panic’.
Silhouette at the edge of my bed
My legs won’t move, my mouth won’t open
I’m frozen instead
⬆️ This is about a sleep demon experienced with waking paralysis.