The song is not really about anything in particular. The theme is a channeling of a vague sense of disquiet I think we all feel about free will. Is everything unwinding with certainty to a preordained script? Or is the future malleable to our will? Are we the pilot or the passenger? We struggle to find an anchor point in the universe, a frame of reference. Love, work, war, art – its many things to many people but the same thing, an activity which helps make ourselves real amid the vast careening circus of the universe. But theres also the odd glimmer of something just out of reach, a hint of something grander just beyond our meager powers of comprehension. “Aint nobody in control of the great unknown” is a pretty frightening concept, because we are a part of the great unknown. It will make you crazy if you think about it too much, and that’s why we need a frame of reference. But somewhere at the peak of human experience there is a way of being which drops the protective armor of a frame of reference, and immerses you in the true nature of things.

This song began in a jam with Craig doing the main riff on bass and grew from there. It was always going to be a simple song, and its buoyant energy made it a logical choice for opener. From the intro pattern the verse progression came pretty quick, with the chorus wanting to go naturally to the F and G. The lyrics were pretty much written rapid fire in ten minutes or so before a jam as I was dying to play the song with the general structure and melody having been put in place.

This song uses a drop D tuning with the B string dropped to A, which is something I do a lot because it allows you to use those two top open strings as a chord layer while moving the deeper chords underneath. As a guitarist in a 3 piece you're constantly looking for opportunities to create an impression of layers, trying to make one instrument sound like two.