Feed The Machine

Well it's pretty obvious that this song is all about how everyone lives to please the world. That's would be the symbolic part of "feeding the machine." Everyone has let the world determine who they really are instead of finding out themselves. We are just giving in and doing what everyone else wants us to do and when we are on the brink of figuring it all out the world just wants us to fall back asleep and do what they tell us. This is when Red says to wake up and open your eyes. Realize that you don't have a personality, but the world owns who you are. So you need to "kill the machine" and throw everything away. Go against the world and find your own faces. Great song!

This is a christian band, and from that standpoint, the meaning is fairly obvious.

Turn around they might be watching And you never disappoint them Hide your innocence before they see right through You mustn't disappoint them

This is pretty much about that we're afraid to stand out,to preach against the sin and immorality that modern culture celebrates (homosexuality, fornication, the like).

It's really kind of disapointing, that in a culture that has an unhealthy obsession with rebellion, when Christans stand up, they're shoved back to the floor.

And that we're actually starting to believe this stuff.This song continues like this until it tells us to wake up and realize what's actually going on, and to fight the evil that's overtaking the culture.

I think this song is about an internal conflict

Half of us tells us to "feed the machine." The machine is ourself. We need to function properly as members of this society...

WRONG We have to "wake up, wake up and kill the machine."

also, that bridge part where he sings "shhhh ... sleep"etc.

I think that can be how one half of us is telling the other half to go back to sleep. Don't try to fight yourself.

I guess the analogy of an angel on one shoulder and a demon on the other is an easier way to think of this. The devil tells the angel to go back to sleep so that he cannot influence the person the devil is influencing..

i'm very bad with words, hope this all made sense!

GREAT song btw, can't wait for the album

This was posted on facebook by the guitarist Randy after getting asked what this song means. The world is the machine. "The crap this world has to offer and the things the world tells us we need to be."

I don't feel this son is talking about society at all. I think it's talking about depression. These are norms of society. "You need the danger just to feel your heart beat. You need to die just to find your identity. You need the knife just to know that you can bleed. You need the pain now just to feel anything." People look down on wrist cutters and that is what I believe this verse is saying. By feeling pain you are feeding the machine.

"You need to another death just to have a life to save. You need a master just so you can beg.You need to light because your so afraid. Now bow down and learn to be a good slave." This is the fear within someone. What else can they do. They are scared. I do agree with what dsDrummer218 has to say about the two guys on the shoulder. One is telling the person to feed the machine and hurt themselves why the other is telling the person to kill the machine. This is just what I feel this song is saying.

This is a great political song. To me, it says we feed the machine (of propaganda) by falling in line and living the lies we're told - and never disappointing the status quo. Take this verse for example: "You need another death just to have a life to save You need a master just so you can beg You need a light just because your so afraid Now bow and learn to be a good slave" Think about the lies we're being told to justify foreign policy. The goal is to scare the crap out of people so they will blindly support the agendas of the power elite. All the while our kids are dying. We need to find our identity, lest we go back to sleep. So.......Wake up, wake up and kill the machine. This song needs to be played everywhere and often.

The Matrix anyone? Seems to me to be just like the Matrix, which can also send the message that you can't just sleep like the machines (the world) wants you to. You must wake up and kill the evil you face.

For anyone who has read the book '1984' I think this song is about that same book. :)

Relating to the fact that this is a Christian band. I think this is about how the Christian society is seen or is expected to be seen as. Strict, religious-crazed, orderly: "They pull you faster the gate is calling/ and you'll never fall behind/ so choose a face you're only calling out/ you musn't fall behind" I agree on some of the angel/demon suggestions before. On one side of the song it says how "you need the danger" "need to die" "need the knife" "need the pain". It shows the...how to explain it...personal struggle. On the other hand it shows these lines: "You need another death just to have a life to save/ You need a master just so you can beg/ you need a light just because you're so afraid/ now bow and learn to be a good slave" CHRISTIANS, CORRECT ME IF I AM WRONG. I'm guessing it's suggesting towards a false prophet and how people follow? "Need another death just to have a life to save" hinting another Jesus? "Master just so you can beg" A godly figure? "Need a light just because you're so afraid" Some light, some significance towards something (one, being, etc.) to make you feel better? "Now bow and learn to be a good slave" Suggesting that the other godly figure is just a hoax just to trap you in more...pain? Or it could suggest back to the first lines I pointed out. Maybe all those physical needs are metaphorical? Meaning you need to..."see to believe"? Except in this case, feel to believe? Then finding some false belief in something that you think can save you and not God? All the same, claiming you believe in that God you reject? Keeping the formalities, the appearances, for the world? But instead wake up and find what is true? The machine, is it the world, society? My conclusions: The Machine is the everyday toil that tells us what is right and wrong. They say that God is the only right and you should behave in total respect to god. You reject God and follow this belief in pain (physical or metaphorical) yet keep a face for the machine. Sleep, says the "lies" and then Wake Up to the reality in which the song wants you to realize is that the machine is wrong, you don't have to be all bible banging, reserved turtleneck wearer [no diss to the turtleneck] who spends all day and all night in church to show your love for God, and that the belief in what you've been following (that's not God) is a part of the machine's lies (on account of the machine still being the world, part of the world shows you different, false gods), hence: wake up and kill the machine = realize and disregard world/society/etc. Again, this is from a perspective that includes the fact that this band is Christian.

This song, to a personal level, has such a different meaning. I love this song.