FAWM: "high school"

high school

4 days ago by @circle

Liner Notes

I'm a big fan of teen movies, and I thought it would be fun to write a song sort of about high school in America, without ever having been to America. All of the lyrics are basically just things I've seen in films and TV, but sort of from the perspective of someone who never fit any of the stereotypes. Then it only seemed right to try to do it in an American accent. It probably sounds hilarious to Americans but I think I did okay! I enjoyed doing it, it felt very stupid and I love being stupid

it's spoken word I guess because it was just far easier and quicker and you can say much more. in terms of music it's all pretty simple and I tried to bring it together relatively quickly and ignore the temptation to overdo the production and mixing. I think it sounds pretty alright as is and I might have just made it worse by spending more time on it. my temptation is always to build to some noisy chaos at the end, but I'm glad I resisted on this one

#spokenword #indie #america

Lyrics

you'll never forget
the way you left it
ceremoniously
fist in the air
like you just didn't care

and you did
and didn't
stockholm syndrome
infects its victims

you feel remorse and longing
leaving a place of belonging
even though you didn't belong
not really, anyway

you fit the description of high school person
and in that sense, you belonged
but did you ever really?

you weren't a jock
you weren't a cheerleader
you were not a burned out junkie
that only exists in dramatized movies
or in some unfortunate places
that you've never been to

you didn't go to band camp
you've never even touched a flute
you were never prom queen or king
and you might have hated the people who were
and maybe they hated you
for no real reason

at least, undiscernible now
you wonder where they are now
maybe you'll go to the reunion
and maybe you'll laugh at the idea

but maybe you won't
maybe you feel like you've got
something to show
something to prove
that all those years were good to you
you're better than high school

Comments

@vomvorton 3d

Love the sound of the clean guitar against those droning, fizzy synths. Fun idea to go spoken word (and do the accent!) for this, it works really well. Like a super-chill version of Popular by Nada Surf, haha.

@owl 4d

Nice minimal moody vibe to this arrangement. “Been to” sounds a bit Canadian to me (I’d pronounce it “bin” not “bean”) but otherwise your American accent is very convincing 😁🇺🇸🍔 So pretty and unexpected when the drone drops out in that last moment. It all feels very melancholy and cinematic.

@aeye 4d

That opening sounds great. This could easily slot into a high school film.
What's funny to me is I actually did not really like high school. I did fine, but those movies totally glorify it in ways that it definitely is not. I like that this is spoken though. It's kinda like it's an inner monologue of someone going through some life changing event talking to themselves. This was cool.