Rest My Chemistry

"I haven't slept for two days I've bathed in nothing but sweat"

This, to me, is speaking of withdrawal symptoms of trying to quit. For most addicts, the half the habit is to prevent getting dope sick. The withdrawal symptoms for drugs like cocaine, heroin, and prescription pills can be some of the roughest and nastiest and sometimes unbearable stuff a human can be put through. Although its dependent on the tolerance, amount, and how long someone has used.

"And I've made hallways Scenes for things to regret"

This, to me, is simple to explain, as others have touched upon it. For a recovering addict, there are many things that will trigger thoughts of their past and past drug use. Its been scientifically proven that if an addict is used to listening to a particular song while getting high, simply hearing that song again (while clean) will trigger the brain to release dopamine. Which is one of the chemicals that gets overloaded and released when doing most drugs. Dopamine is the chemical that makes you happy. Messing with this balance can make quitting so hard (depression and generally the brain not firing on all pistons, if you catch my drift). As the lyric implies, something as subtle as a hallway, could trigger the memories of where he could have used or a particular hallway he would walk down to buy drugs. It produces nothing but regret because of constant the reminder. For long time addicts, everything can trigger regret.

"My friends they come And the lines they go by"

You would be surprised how addicts gravitate to one another and are basically fake friendships. The only real common trait between them is this thought process, "he does drugs, he gets me, we use together, etc." Line after line of drugs just go by. Then the friendship is pretty much over until the next time.

"I live my life filled in the cocaine Just some rage and three kinds of yes"

Three kinds of yes- How does an addict want his drug? three kinds of yes, snorting, smoking, injecting.

"Oh, those days in the sun They bring a tear to my eye"

Thinking of happier times. Could be when he was a child, or a good teenager, but clean nonetheless.

"But you're so young You're so young You look in my eyes You're so young, so sweet, so surprised You look so young Like a daisy in my lazy eyes"

This, could have several meanings. It seems to be about a girl, who is his motivation to get clean. Realizing that in his world of hell, she is the only "clean" thing he has in it. That support could be there for him.

I, personally, think its him staring in the mirror, as one user commented above. Addicts generally are "stuck" in life. They never progress, mentally or in generally life. Every day from waking up until sleep they are thinking of how am I going to get the next high? Where am I going to get the money for it? So and so is all out, who is has some that I can buy off? There is no progression in life or the emotions or mental maturation. The mental part is important. An addict who started at 17 and quits at age 35, will usually have the emotions and mental state of a 17 year old. Psychiatrists, and Psychologists generally agree about this.

The part that says, you look so sweet, so surprised. I take it as looking in the mirror, surprised that he has reached this level of addiction and pathetic. Addicts never realized how bad their behavior gets. It just progesses and progesses to the pits of hell.

this song is beautiful. it gives me chills.

this song doesn't have to involve a girl. and i think has noting to do with one. this is HIS song, about HIM.

i think it's his own realization about the drug. it's him sort of taking a step back and looking at just where his life is now. "and my friends they come and the lines go by..." his friendships revolve around doing coke. so does the rest of him. "tonight i am going to rest my chemistry" an attempt to stop possibly.....but note how it only says tonight. why? because he probably can't go beyond that night without feeding his addiction

hm. "three kinds of yes"

-lust yes -drunk yes -i don't care yes

I never interpreted this song to be about durgs until I came here (discussion boards on youtube are crap, everyone is very rude). I originally saw it as a a song about a guy who lives his life in a wild manner, drinking, partying, rowdy behavior etc; And comes across a young girl, beautiful, pure and unspoiled. To him, she is fascinating in her innocence, but he knows better and sadly only settles from watching her from afar, knowing that nothing good would come between them. So he goes home a reflects on his life.

I've been wanting to hear an acoustic version of this song, without the background keyboard things.

First I would like to say that this is in my opinion the only great song on olta.

Anyways to me this song has nothing to do with drugs. The speaker has been devastated by a girl and "resting his chemistry" is referring to coming to terms with the ending of his relationship. He has to finally rest the "chemistry" with that significant other. I believe that the "lines" being referred to is just a way of stating that many of his friends come to aid him in his state. And yeah it helps, but the only thing that can truly set him free is realizing it's over. Also, after being in a break up we all can attest to sweating, staying up all night, missing that person who was the daisy in our eyes.

i think the song IS mentioning a girl in some way. hes talking about doing cocaine a lot, and all of his friendships are based off of lines, yeah.

but this:

"But you're so young. You're so young You look in my eyes. You look so young. So sweet. So suprised. You look so young, like a daisy in my lazy eyes."

i think hes talking about a girl, or whoever, who wasn't into coke & didnt really know that side of him. hence, so young so surprised. and he was already messed up on coke every time he saw her anyway, "like a daisy in my lazy eyes".

so yeah i think shes the reason he might wanna be "resting his chemistry" and stopping. :)

I haven't slept for two days I've bathed in nothing but sweat And I've made hallways Scenes for things to regret My friends they come And the lines they go by

• this refers to life on the road

I live my life filled with no pain Just some rage and three kinds of yes

• this refers to his "demons"

And I've made stairways Such scenes for things that I regret

• this refers to an incident that happened in which, obviously he regrets (happening to do with a girl)

But you're so young You're so young You look in my eyes You're so young, so sweet, so surprised

• this refers to the girl. he sees her as she looks to him and realizes the reason why she is surprised. she is surprised because he is not as he seems. her perception of what she thought and actuality are very different.

I see a sign, it says “okay” Gotta take a ride, just recline in the faraway Got to take some time to realize That my friends they come And the lines they go by Tonight I'm gonna rest my chemistry

• this refers to the fact that he wants to know more about her, but realizes that will never happen.

Tonight I'm gonna rest my chemistry this just sums up to why he doesn't explore more into the young girl he met. i am sure age, the fact that he is on tour (and doesn't have "time"), or maybe as everyone else has stated before....he is gonna take it easy from things in which are not good for him i.e.: drinking or drugs

Meeting/seeing this girl helped open his eyes to the things he needs to change in himself

I enjoyed reading the opinions on this song, but for all the people who are like "it's NOT about suicide" or "it's DEFFO not about a girl" etc. you should remember that a very common (and brilliant) character of Interpol lyrics is AMBIGUITY. Perhaps the main idea of the lyrics involves drugs, stemming from this might be a slight desire to end life, or the influence of a girl etc etc. So please don't be casting things off so harshly.

I think this song is fantastic, and here are the things I get from my favourite lines:

"Tonight I'm gonna rest my chemistry" is so powerful yet lazy at the same time - he realises what he needs to do, but his word choice ("rest") shows his submissiveness to addiction - he can only rest it, not battle/challenge it, either because he can't or mightn't even want to.

"Just some rage and three kinds of yes" to me, the three kinds of yes are 'yes' as in accepting the cocaine and the effect it has on him, 'yes' as in being submissive to the contemporary assumption that drugs/this lifestyle is the only way to be, and 'yes' as in saying that word when having sex. The last one might seem a bit odd, but Interpol songs are just full of sexual undercurrent and the feeling of sexual gratification is similar to feeling high off drugs (or a high-fuelled fuck on cocaine haha). All of these 'yes's are the dominating factors of his life, and he obviously is uncomfortable about it.

"My friends they come, and the lines they go by" his friends aren't really friends at all - in this situation they are all there to do their lines, not to be actual friends; and it all just "goes by" - i.e. it is superficial and false. Also get the feeling here that he has lost actual friendships that he valued because of his drug-taking ("gotta take some time to realise")

"But you're so young You're so young You look in my eyes You're so young, so sweet, so surprised" To me, this is a person who is inspiring him to take hold of the situation - surprised at the person he is when he takes this shit. It could be himself looking into a mirror - thinking about his youth and innocence and never imagining being the person he is today.

Wow, Interpol is genius.

this is a beautiful song. obviously about some young girl inspiring him to stop using drugs?

Obviously about Paul Banks taking a look at his coke use. Not sure if he's takling about a girl in the song. Perhaps he's looking in a mirror and talking about himself. Fantastic song!

cocaine numbs ,that might be a connection to "i live my life filled with no pain."