Return to the Violence of the Ocean Floor

I think it's about struggling upkeeping his creative side. All musicians can relate to this, I think.

"I've got a spirit Made out of sand Sometimes it slips through my fingers Back onto the beach In some kind of lust To return to the violence of the ocean floor"

His spirit is his spirit haha. It's made out of sand; it's easy to keep track of. He loses it back into every other part of his life when he is distracted by other things (lust) and he falls back into the bottom with everyone else; just another person without creativity. Or that last line could mean the creativity itself falls in; like thinking of a cool line and then forgetting it by the time you get a chance to write it down.

"So I kneel down And gather it up Grain by grain I have to keep it safe I still have some things to say:"

He knows it's important; he puts a lot of time in trying to fix his lyrics/songs after he's abused them. He does his best, and he has to remind himself:

"You should have been a writer, you should have played guitar, But those kids keep coming down the fucking hill You should have been a writer, you should have played guitar, But your face looks like a statue in the dark Like a candle that is held up to a mirror Or the terrible glimpse of a shark Within your idiot heart"

It's too late now; you should have studied more often, but the kids (distractions) kept coming to play. This next part is a little confusing. Maybe the face like a statue in the dark means his emotions, or maybe what truly mattered to him, was a beautiful thing, even though you couldn't see it (darkness, other things going on, etc.) "Like" suggests that the candle and the shark are both similar to that. His idiot heart is just him reminding himself that he screws up a lot- in Spencer's lyrics he often talks to himself, like his song on the Dragonslayer LP by his project Sunset Rubdown literally called 'Idiot Heart.'

"I heard you hate it all just based on your principles now"

He noticed that he hates writing just because of how he's changed.

"So I kneel down Down into your burning sand, singing One, we got the spirit, two, we got the music Three, we got the past and four, we got the future And five, we got some kind of lust To return to the violence of the ocean floor"

So he gets back down and tells himself, or rather sings to himself, that first of all, he still has the creativity raging inside him. Secondly, he's got the music, the experience; he's done this before. Thirdly, he has the past.. but fourthly, he also has the future. Three and four, I could see different ways. Three maybe says 'Hey, the past sucked, but yo we still have four, the future! We got this.' But I also feel 'The past is inspiration, and the future comes only more experience. And finally, I still have those distractions.. To make me like everyone else again. To make the music just another thing I used to do.

in this interview Spencer Krug states that this song is about suicide: undertheradarmag.com/interviews/moonface/