| Typhoon – Dreams of Cannibalism Lyrics | 10 years ago |
|
What this song is about… This song talks about how the unfortunate events that happened in your past— the “demons” in your head— can haunt your mind in the future, causing depression and dullness throughout your days. Kyle Morton shares in this song his relief of being able to get out of his illness and having to live with the struggle of pretending to be someone that he is not, and liking things that he does not, just to fit in and be happy with himself. After his recovery, he started to see life in a different way; he began to see people all the same, with no differences. In upcoming verses, Kyle states with these lyrics that people are forgetting what is the real essence of being alive—he wants the people to actually enjoy what is really being alive because he knows what is it to be one step from meeting death. “Unhand me, I am not a criminal, but I've played a guilty part in the modern sense that one pretends their life is original” In this first stanza, Kyle is talking from his deeper consciousness; his guilty subconscious. He knows that he has committed mistakes when he tried to pretend to have another life that was not his, and pretending to be someone he is not; perhaps to forget about his horrendous past of living with an illness like Lyme Disease. Pretending to live a life that is not yours, Kyle sees it as you harming your own soul. In another Typhoon song “The Sickness Unto Death”, also written by Kyle Morton, there’s a stanza that says “You tried so hard to make people remember you for something you were not, and if they so remember you, then something else will certainly get forgotten”. Kyle is trying to say with this that people try too hard to pretend to have a life that it is not theirs, and trying to stand out of the average society; by the means of trying to obtain a creative, unique, or “original” life. Likewise, people are beginning to forget their true values and morals, their true personality. This is what Kyle refers with “something else that will get forgotten” just as he does in the lyrics of “Dreams of Cannibalism”. “I wrote a book and I will call it something cynical, the story is slow, the hero does not change and if he can then he won't anyway, instead his foes and lovers all become identical” By book, Kyle refers to the story of his life. He says that he will “call it something cynical” because that is how he describes his own life. Kyle Morton is the hero, and he says that even though he wants to change, he can’t do it, because his “demons” and the past of his life do not let him be “free”. Then, he adds that there was a moment in his life when he realized that he will not care anymore what happens, so he starts to see everyone with no differences. Also, in a seminar in the Lawrence High School, Kyle mentioned that many of the songs that he has written, have sort of a “cinematic” approach, because he wanted to make a film before creating Typhoon. Therefore, in this verse, he refers to the story about his own life that he wrote for the film, that, as we know now, became the song lyrics of Typhoon’s music. In the part of “Instead his foes and lovers all become identical” is the key phrase that tells us he is talking about his own life. In the Lawrence High School Seminar, he says: “Relationships with people were very powerful, very intense… But these kind of relationships repeat themselves and I saw patterns in them and I could start to kind of throw some light on it” , so in the lyrics of this song, he makes reference to this statement that means that he is not longer able to see differences between people and his friends, so instead, he tries to change the way he sees life by accepting it the way that it is. “I fled the country, I thought I'd leave this behind, but I built the same damn house on every acre I could find, and I tried to fake my own death just shake the devils from my mind”” This is a metaphor about how Kyle has moved from one place to another, changing his mindset, and yet he does the same things. In “Starting Over (Bad Habits)” (another Typhoon song), Kyle sings:“I’ve started, a new beginning, suspiciously like the old one only this time I'm ready”. He mentions that he started a new beginning— just like fleeing the country and living it behind— and tried to “build another house” referring to how he tried to create another unique life, yet he still encounters the same kind of people, the same old habits, that do not let him be himself. However, just as Kyle said in an interview with KEXP, the song lyrics in “White Lighter” are chronologically older than the ones in the past album “Hunger and Thirst”. So, in this song of “Starting Over”, he sings that this time he is ready, foreshadowing the lyrics of “Dreams of Cannibalism” where he describes that he is still in the struggle of creating a new way of interpreting life. According to Kyle, the despair of trying to be free is exceedingly rigorous and difficult. He metaphorically states that he even tried to “fake his own death” in order to eliminate those demons and bad memories that are still inside Kyle’s mind; he essentially gave up mentally and emotionally just to be finally free. “And I said: Unhand me, I am not a criminal, and if I am, I paid the man just let me go, soon enough you will be dancing at my funeral” I love this part of the song. The lyrics are almost the same as the first verse, but in this one, the part of “and if I am, I paid the man just let me go” the whole band (which is constituted by eleven guys) sing together; this gives a very powerful tone and feeling to the lyrics. Morton states that he does not know why his “demons” do not let him alone. He says that he does not know why he deserves to suffer because he “paid the man”, which means that he has done good things in life that should liberate his soul. This statement could also be a reference of how people nowadays just use the power of blackmailing, cheating, and “paying the man” to solve their obstacles. This last stanza is dedicated to his “demons”. He says that soon enough he will give up, and his demons and mean sub-conscious will strike again, and he will not be able to continue anymore. |
|
| Typhoon – The Lake Lyrics | 10 years ago |
|
This is only my extense interpretation, I hope you like it. “A northern state in the summer time, my uncle’s lake on the fourth of July” -With “northern state” Kyle refers to the State of Oregon in the United States which is located in the northern part of the country. He is talking about a story or event that happened on the fourth of July; which is the U.S Independence Day. “Outside the cabin my sister tried, to call like the loon with her hands cupped tight, up against her mouth as the fireflies became visible in the failing summer light, a sparkler in my hand, I went after them as they went out in the night” -First of all, there is an alliteration in “call like the loon”, and in this verse Morton is saying that his sister was trying to get the attention of the loon, that we suppose was in the lake, by doing sounds so the loon can answer back to her. “I wandered down into a quiet place, where the grass grew tall where it met the lake, there was a different bug, must have bit my leg, though I never saw it” -This verse is very important. It is related to the bug that bit Kyle; the one that transferred Lyme Disease to him. He thinks that one day, he walked down some tall grass and this bug bit him, without him realizing what happened. “Back at home I cried in my room, my closest friend, the one that I confided to: ‘I wanted her, but she wanted you’, I was sick in bed, I could barely move, and then as my body turned against itself, I prayed for death that I’d come back to be anyone else, as sickness formed within my cells” -In this stanza, Kyle is narrating that he was in love with this girl; probably he had sort of a crush on her. Morton is narrating when he told his best friend that that girl was in love with his best friend, and not him. Also, Kyle could not do much because he was in bed, fighting and struggling against his disease. “You never loved me like the way you loved anyone else, you dig a hole, dig it deep enough, the truth buries itself and buries itself” -This sort of a complicated verse. Kyle regrets liking this girl instead of caring and loving his sister that was always there for him. “You dig a hole, dig it deep enough, the truth buries itself” it is a metaphor for time. Kyle wants her sister to forget about what happened and the mistakes he made by using the factor of time. “I’m sorry, you were the only thing I should have ever loved” -Kyle Morton ends the song with a deep and powerful apology to his sister. |
|
* This information can be up to 15 minutes delayed.